Rare lake forms in Death Valley thanks to year’s worth of rain — in one day, photo shows
The storm that brought an entire year’s worth of rain to Death Valley National Park — in a single day — also left some exciting surprises in its wake.
Stunning and extremely rare lakes pooled in usually bone dry and exceptionally hot and arid areas of the park — already one of the hottest places in the world.
“Lakes in the sand dunes wasn’t on our 2023 bingo card,” Death Valley National Park said in an Oct. 21 post on Facebook that included a photo of one of the blue-green lakes. “I mean, take a look at this picture of Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. THERE WAS WATER!”
Indeed, it looks like an oasis in the middle of a desert.
“Some spectacular things happened in Death Valley following the floods we received from remnants of Hurricane Hilary back in August. Ephemeral lakes popped up around the park, which is both pretty rare and amazing! They disappear fast, so they most likely will not be there when you visit.”
In fact, the pond has since dried up — but it left behind some “amazing mud cracks” that haven’t yet been tread on by humans, Nichole Andler, the park’s chief of interpretation and education, told McClatchy News in an email.
Soon after the flood, visitors and park rangers reported out-of-season wildflowers blooming around the pond, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“The flowers are really confused, and they’re in bloom,” ranger Shelby McClintock told the outlet.
Those flowers are a bit harder to find now, though some can still be seen along the roadside at higher elevations, Andler said. And there’s still much more green in the desert than is normal for this time of year.
“It was pretty striking to see the change in the plant life that had become stressed by the extended heat spell we had in July this year, 17 consecutive days at 120 degrees or more for the daily high,” Andler said, adding that the rains from the remnant of Hurricane Hilary also contributed to the “quick transformation.”
An even bigger lake still sprawls across the famously dry and flat Badwater Basin, the lowest spot in the country at 282 feet below sea level, the LA Times reported.
It’s unusual that the lake has stuck around this long, Andler said.
“Because our daily temperatures are no longer in the 110s or more, evaporation slows down so the lake is still here,” she said.
This story was originally published October 25, 2023 at 11:12 AM with the headline "Rare lake forms in Death Valley thanks to year’s worth of rain — in one day, photo shows."
