California’s drought conditions are the worst in 1,200 years after three years of high temperatures and little rainfall.

According to a study scheduled to be published in the American Geophysical Union by researchers at the University of Minnesota and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, numerous periods of very dry weather with sparse rainfall over the past few years combined with high temperatures are ravaging the state, creating the worst conditions since the Middle Ages, according to a Reuters report.

Calling the California drought “exceptionally severe,” the reports authors said in the study, which was released this week, that temperatures have reached record highs, which combined with the “reduced though not unprecedented precipitation.”

The study’s authors blamed warm and dry conditions that shrunk the supply of water from reservoirs and streams, as well as the Sierra Nevada snowpack — an especially bad combination with the fact that demand from residents and farmers has actually risen in the last few years.

However, authors noted that droughts — even those lasting three years — are not uncommon in California, and it is possible that six years during the last 1,200 years have actually been drier. However, the drought’s severity stands out in particular.

Fortunately, California has experience some moisture this month, with as much as 12 inches of rain and plenty of snow over the coming weeks, which could alleviate some of the pain.

Another drought of similar severity happened in 1934 during the height of the U.S. Great Depression, and led to the conditions referred to as the “Dust Bowl.”

The latest study has not been published yet because it has not been edited, but it has been peer-reviewed and approved.