Strong winds moved a lake in Death Valley two miles

Last week, winds in California’s Death Valley were strong enough over the course of three days to move a temporary lake, informally known as Lake Manly, two miles north. National Park Service said this week.

“The lake took a walk,” Abby Wines, a park ranger at Death Valley National Park, said in an interview Thursday.

The powerful winds were part of a Pacific Northwest storm system moving over parts of California and Nevada, Brian Planz, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Las Vegas, said Thursday.

In Death Valley the wind began to pick up on the afternoon of February 29 and on March 1 and 2 it blew consistently between 32 and 53 miles per hour. weather data from the National Park Service. According to the Park Service, winds reached speeds of 25 to 50 mph at times on March 1 and 2, peaking at 55 mph at 10 a.m. on March 2.

Strong winds reached speeds of 80 mph (130 km/h) Saturday at Angel Peak, in the Spring Mountains northwest of Las Vegas, and up to 69 mph (109 km/h) at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, according to the National Weather Service. Mr. Planz said his office has received reports from around the area of ​​minor damage to trees, power lines, utility poles and buildings.

Ms Wines described the wind as “strong enough to throw you off balance.”

They were also strong enough, it turns out, to displace Lake Manly, an ephemeral and shallow body of water that forms when enough rain falls in the saltwater flats of Badwater Basin. When the lake appears, people flock there with canoes and kayaks.

When the winds started on Thursday afternoon, Ms Wines said she went to Lake Manly and saw “little waves” moving. She returned Saturday to find the lake had moved.

“I was absolutely blown away by the fact that an area where a few days before I could launch a kayak from 10 feet off the road was now just a salt flat as far as I could see,” she said.

Mr. Planz said it was not uncommon for strong winds to stir bodies of water, noting that similar episodes have occurred near Lake Erie and Galveston Bay in Texas over the years. He said he was not surprised when he heard Lake Manly had been moved because it is shallow and not a normal lake.

“It’s strange that the lake is there at all and then decides to just go up and go two miles,” Ms Wines said.

Lake Manly was last formed by rain from Tropical Storm Hilary in August. According to the Park Service, rain in Death Valley in early February made Lake Manly six miles long, two miles wide and a foot deep. The last time Lake Manly swelled to “significant depths” before reappearing last year was in 2005, said Jennette Jurado, spokeswoman for the National Park Service.

“It’s very shallow,” Mr. Planz said. “So it’s easy for the wind to move it.”

After Lake Manly was moved, the Park Service announced that boating would not be allowed on the lake until it was full again.

“It was amazing to see an entire lake migrating,” Mike Reynolds, superintendent of Death Valley National Park, said in a statement Monday. “But now the water is drying up, leaving wide mudflats behind. People walked a long way and sometimes towed their boats. This leaves footprints and drag marks that will likely be visible for years. This left us with no choice at this time but to restrict boating on historic Lake Manly.”

By Thursday, water from Lake Manly had drifted back to its original location, Ms Wines said, adding that the water was brown “because it was moving.”

“That is slowly settling down,” Ms Wines said. “It should return to its blue color at some point with good reflections.”