DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, WHICH sprawls across the border of Nevada and California, is well known for its superlatives: It is the hottest, driest, and lowest of the U.S. national parks. So in early March 2019, when a lake suddenly appeared there, people were amazed and perplexed. How did this happen?
Well, it was definitely not a mirage. The estimated 10-mile-long ephemeral lake was the result of heavy rainstorms in the area. As first reported by SFGate, between March 5 and 6, Death Valley received 0.84 inches of rain. The average rainfall for the entire year is around two inches. The dry climate has created soil that can only absorb water at a very slow rate. Those two factors—the unusual volume of the rain and the extreme dryness of the soil—are what allowed the lake to form.
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