By Mark Gray
12:00pm PDT, Apr 28, 2024
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Death Valley — which is located in Southern California's Mojave Desert — is the hottest and driest place in America. And it's not exactly known for its sprawling vegetation.
However, after a 1-in-1,000-year storm — two, in fact — wildflowers are springing up in the desert, offering on odd scene in the normally desolate landscape.
Back in 2022, the area was at the mercy of a 22-year drought and vegetation that can usually survive on very little water began dying off. Then a monster rainstorm soaked Death Valley National Park and the desert area got about three-quarters of its typical annual total rainfall within just a few hours. In 2023, the remnants of Hurricane Hilary dumped a further 2.2 inches of rain on the park, which set a 24-hour record for rainfall.
"To have the worst drought in recorded history and the most precipitation in history, it's clearly climate whiplash," Patrick Donnelly, a conservation biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity, told NBC News. The last two years in Death Valley have been "climate chaos," he said.
Lately, yellow wildflowers and a nature-made lake have even sprung up.
"I could take you to a field of dead creosote bushes with nice wildflowers springing up in between," Donnelly said. "For a plant, it's a post-apocalyptic wasteland — everything is dead — then spring comes and flowers are sprouting between the corpses."
Keep reading to see images of the vegetation that's sprouted in Death Valley National Park…
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Flowers bloom in California's Death Valley National Park on April 22, 2024.
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Purple wildflowers bloom in California's Death Valley National Park on April 23, 2024.
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Lake Manly, which formed following heavy rainfall, is seen from Dante's View in California's Death Valley National Park on Feb. 27, 2024.
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Flowers bloom in California's Death Valley National Park on April 22, 2024.
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Flowers bloom in California's Death Valley National Park on April 22, 2024.
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A man floats a kayak in Lake Manly, which formed following heavy rainfall, in California's Death Valley National Park on Feb. 27, 2024.
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Flowers bloom in California's Death Valley National Park on April 22, 2024.
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Flowers bloom in California's Death Valley National Park on April 22, 2024.
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Onlookers take photos of flowers blooming in California's Death Valley National Park on April 22, 2024.
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Flowers bloom in California's Death Valley National Park on April 22, 2024.
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A photographer documents the flowers blooming in California's Death Valley National Park on April 22, 2024.
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Two kayakers paddle in Lake Manly, which formed following heavy rainfall, in California's Death Valley National Park on Feb. 27, 2024.
