Tulare Lake was considered the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River until it completely dried up and disappeared. The last time it was filled was in 1878, but now it is on the way to being reborn after the incessant rains in recent months in California, which have caused significant flooding in many parts of this state.
Now, water comes out of the lake again and specialists anticipate that the levels reached will be historic, the most important since it dried up. Meteorologists recall that the snow cover that fell during winter on the Sierra Nevada mountains, which delimit the Tulare Lake basin, which is currently three times more voluminous than normal, has not yet melted.
The incredible change can be seen in the satellite image shared by NASA in recent days, where it makes a comparison between March of last year and this. It is observed how the entire central part of the San Joaquin Valley is dyed blue, indicating the proliferation of water in the area. Instead, the area was practically dry in 2022.
This important transformation can be a problem for the neighbors and the economy of the area. The lake was mostly drained in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as its tributaries were suppressed and diverted for agriculture. And since then the dry basin has served as fertile land for agricultural activity. In the area, there are important vegetable, fruit and nut plantations, crops that are threatened by the water that accumulates again.
According to the Los Angeles Times, some 40 square kilometers of farmland have already been flooded. And things can get worse, as more flooding is expected as snowpack melts from California's record-breaking mountain ranges.
Tulare Lake has been reborn thanks to the incessant rains of the last few months. Since January, the National Weather Service (NWS) has repeatedly warned of winter storms and heavy snowfall.
As of mid-March, snowpack in the mountains was 223% above California's late-season winter average, an all-time high for the area.
In this sense, the scientist Daniel Swain recalled that the weather recorded in the state is very different from that of the rest of the country. “You wouldn't have known if you were in California or much of the western US, which just experienced a remarkably cold March by contemporary standards. But in almost all parts of the world, the extraordinary heat has been persistent for months, ”he wrote on his Twitter account.
According to data collected by the Spanish news agency EFE, the so-called Golden State (Golden State) has faced more than a dozen rains and storms in 2023 that have forced Governor Gavin Newsom to proclaim a state of emergency in 43 of the 58 counties that integrate it
