Lake Manly

Death Valley, the hottest and driest place in North America, has a lake. [bold added]

recent rains have submerged the salt flats of Badwater Basin in a foot of water — a temporary lake large enough for park visitors to even go out in kayaks...

While water that falls typically evaporates, Death Valley received a surplus of rain over the past six months — two and half times what it normally tallies in an entire year, [park ranger] Abby Wines said.

The park had its rainiest day on record on Aug. 20, when remnants of Hurricane Hilary dropped 2.2 inches of rain. That brought the reemergence of an ancient lake, dubbed Lake Manly in honor of pioneer William Manly.

By the end of January, the lake had shrunk to half its size from when it formed in August. But an atmospheric-river-fueled storm in early February replenished it to its current dimensions: about 6-miles long, 3-miles wide and 1-foot deep.

Without more rainfall, Lake Manly will not be able to accommodate kayaking and paddle boarding in two weeks and will likely be gone by summer. However, to those of us who have had to listen to the incessant drumbeat of desertification doomsaying by climate alarmists, its unexpected reappearance was pleasure indeed.