(VitalNews.org) – An ancient lake reemerged last year in Death Valley, which caught many by surprise, but it turns out that the lake might be here to stay longer than originally expected.
Death Valley’s Badwater Basin started filling back up with water in August of last year originally from the rainfall that came from Hurricane Hilary. During the hurricane, which prompted the first tropical storm watch in Southern California history, the area got more than 2 inches of rainfall. Park rangers said that the rainfall filling up the lake, or what used to be Lake Manly, would only continue until February.
With this being said, experts are saying that there’s a chance the water in this basin will continue to stay or fill up past February. California has recently seen a lot of rainfall from atmospheric rivers that have been circulating over California. The rainfall that California has seen recently has kept the lake full and has been causing it to expand, which proved to experts that the lake would be around longer than they originally thought.
Satellite images have been used to keep an eye on changes in the lake and they showed that in July there was virtually no water, and then from August to February it was almost filled with water. Death Valley is without a doubt the driest place in North America getting only 2 inches of rain in an entire year. However, in the last 6 months, this area has gotten over 5 inches of rain.
Experts don’t know exactly how long this lake will last, but they’re expecting it to stay for a while longer as the area is expected to get more atmospheric rivers from Monday through Wednesday, which will most likely continue to fill the lake.
According to records, at Lake Manly’s peak, the lake could once hold 700 feet of water. At this point, with the highest amount of water in it now, people can kayak in it. Badwater Basin is 282 feet below sea level, and the last time that this lake filled up was in 2005; it took about a week before it dried back up again.
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