A vibrant oasis filled with ponds and wildflowers has formed in Death Valley National Park, one of the hottest and driest places on Earth, following a significant hurricane this summer. Hurricane Hilary, which struck the area in August, provided abundant rainfall to the park located in Eastern California, according to CNN. Abby Wines, a spokesperson for Death Valley National Park, stated, "It's definitely a rare and special event." She added that this type of rainfall occurs only once a decade.
The hurricane reached Death Valley on August 19 and continued to drench the desert for 24 hours. Records indicate that 2.2 inches (5.6 cm) of rain were measured in Furnace Creek, a location within the 13,650 square kilometer national park, breaking the previous record of 1.7 inches (4.3 cm) set in 2022, according to the National Park Service (NPS).
A month after the storm, park officials took a boat to the ephemeral lake that formed in the Badwater Basin, a salt flat representing the lowest point in the park, and measured its depth at about one foot (0.3 meters). Since then, the water has receded to just a few inches.
Wines expressed, "I wish we knew exactly how long it would last," but estimated that the pool could remain until November. It's worth noting that the last time a lake appeared in Death Valley was in 2019, when a body of water measuring 10 miles (16 kilometers) formed.
