California rains resurrect a long-dead lake in dry Death Valley | Hacker News Reader

California rains resurrect a long-dead lake in dry Death Valley

washingtonpost.com

131 pointskungfudoi26 comments

Super cool. Been to Death Valley a few times; got rained on once, and even snowed on crossing the mountain range between Panamint Valley and Death Valley (I think the range tops out around 3500'?).

What surprised me, though, was that one could kayak in Lake Manly. I guess it never occurred to me to think about what's allowed vs not allowed.

Actually the Panamint range tops out at just over 11,000 feet, at Telescope Peak. One cloudless July day I was walking to its summit, wearing flip-flops, a t-shirt, and shorts, when a tiny fluff of a cloud suddenly appeared. An hour later I was hiking through driving snow in near-whiteout conditions. The weather there can be weird.

The comment was about crossing the range, not climbing to the highest point. The Towne Pass West is closer to 5,000 feet elevation, not sure if this is the pass in question on State Route 190.

Maybe they were using earth measurements? 3500 metered is getting pretty close to 11000 imperial feet.

Yeah, might be. The use of the single-quote "3500'" is a pretty standard way of indicating feet, and I've never seen meters denoted that way. At the same time, I can easily imagine getting confused by the scale: there's a lot of ways in which the landscape there just doesn't look as big as it actually is, since a lot of the normal perception cues (humidity haze, trees, etc.) are missing.

Indeed a single quote is. But it 3500m being close to 11000ft feels very coincidental.

> I guess it never occurred to me to think about what's allowed vs not allowed.

I'm the same, but the opposite. I never would have thought there were public places you couldn't kayak.

https://archive.is/MPBi4

Badwater Basin was also a fun map in TF2

https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Badwater_Basin

Was? It's one of my favorites.

Earth changes and things adapt. Nothing ever stays the same, we are engineers we should know this well.

Anyone been? How were the crowds in practice? Thinking of popping up for a quick look but wouldn't want to go if it's all crowded. Been through a few times, but obviously never seen it wet, though I've been in many a rainstorm close to there.

I noticed on the Death Valley Park website[1] that the lake has receded enough that you can no longer reach the water for paddling, which might make the experience a little less interesting but would also reduce the crowds.

[1] https://www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm

https://wapo.st/3V1cfiQ

Archive: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/03/01/death-valle...

And a video, since the pics don't seem to come through on the archive link: https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/reemergence-rare-lake-death-...

Could sufficient water ever end up there for a self sustaining cycle of evaportion and precipitation to develop?

(obligatory Dune reference)

What reference, specifically?

How 'bout "sufficient water [..] for a self sustaining cycle of evaporation and precipitation".

Tulare Lake has finally dried up https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/tulare-lake-g...

> global warming, which baked the region in a years-long megadrought and has now flooded it with rain.

I really don’t like the decision by some climate activists to attribute every weather or climate related event to global warming. This really plays into the idea that climate change itself is just fear mongering. There is scant evidence that local climatic changes are due to the global warming. The climate changes without human effects and removing anthropogenic greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere is not going to permanently stabilize the climate the way it is now everywhere. If you want to do that you need to support some kind of climate engineering, and these same people will oppose that on emotional and not practical grounds.

I'm looking at the headlines of the author's other articles[1] for the WaPo and none of them strike me as climate activism, and surely the Post itself isn't activist. What makes you think that quoted line is climate activism and not reporting?

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/reis-thebault/

I suppose you could argue that once the activist position is adopted as the party line it is now "reporting" and not activism. I don't really think the distinction matters for the purpose of examining the merits of the position itself.

[flagged]

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152448/badwater-bas...

> "Following the August deluge, “most of us thought the lake would be gone by October,” said Death Valley National Park ranger Abby Wines in a news release. “We were shocked to see it still here after almost six months.” That was before the rains returned in February."

Nice thanks, good link - that reflection picture is nice. So they had it last a week before, and this time it's coming up on a year.

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