Despite Atmospheric River, California's Tulare Lake Is Vanishing Again

A ghost lake that reappeared in California last year because of extreme rain is finally starting to recede.

Tulare Lake reemerged last year in the San Joaquin Valley after a series of intense atmospheric rivers brought heavy rain to the state. The original lake had disappeared 80 years ago when the land was repurposed for agriculture activities. Before then, the lake, which used to be fed by water from the Sierra Nevada, was the largest freshwater lake in the West.

But until last year, it was largely sitting dry for eight decades. When it returned last year, it grew to a massive size. Now, however, its waters seem to be receding, KFSN-TV in Fresno reported.

Last summer, the lake's waters covered 120,000 acres, the TV station said, but now they cover only about 4,500 acres, despite California's recent wet weather. Atmospheric rivers brought an onslaught of rain once again to the southern part of the state, causing devastating floods.

"If you think about Kings County, it's about 890,000 acres total, and so with that coverage over 10 percent of our county was covered in water, which is a pretty remarkable thing to think about," Nate Ferrier, a sheriff's sergeant in the community near the lake, told KFSN. "With the recent storms that we've had, really had minimal impact to what's left of the lake."

When the lake first reappeared, it was quite devastating for local farmers, who lost a lot of land and even their homes to the water. So the receding waters are good news for the community because farming should continue.

However, the rain primarily has not caused the lake to swell, as this depends more on the precipitation in the Sierra Nevada.

There is a chance that the most recent atmospheric river has increased snowpack levels. With the warmer spring months, this will start to melt. If there is a large amount, it could cause Tulare Lake to flood once again. But how much snowpack accumulates from these recent storms remains to be seen.

Although farmers suffered from the lake's return, there have been some benefits. A recent Northeastern University study found that native wetland birds started returning to the area.

When the lake was in its prime, it used to be an important stopover for migratory birds, and it seems the habitat is now back.

"Something that continues to amaze me is [the birds] know how to find the lake again. It's like they're always looking for it," Vivian Underhill, a former postdoctoral research fellow at Northeastern University's Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute, said in a summary of the new study.

But if the lake continues to disappear, the birds will likely follow.

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