Visitors and park officials in Death Valley National park were in the last days surprised by an interesting phenomenon – many hills are blooming with salt, a phenomenon often referred to as “salt flowers.”
According to AccuWeather /https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/desert-showers-bring-salt-flowers-to-death-valley/1006500/ region of Death Valley reported a bit of rain in Summer 2021, with a result of creating this precious phenomenon.
The appearance of this salt coating is often referred to as efflorescence – hills in the park have been coated with salt flowers, with resulting effect not different from the appearance of snowfall.
However, in Summer 2021, the all-time world temperature record was in Death Valley broken /https://mkweather.com/deadly-heatwave-in-california-death-valley-54c-130f-palm-springs-populated-area-506c-123f-all-time-records//, when the temperature reached +54°C / 130°F and in populated Palm Springs, California, +50,6°C / 123°F was measured.
Efflorescence is beginning when rain soaks into the soil dissolving the salts present beneath the surface. Rain subsequently evaporates, and it pulls the dissolved salts to the surface through capillary action leaving a fresh salty crust behind, wrote AccuWeather.
Park officials published on Facebook information, that “over time, this white coating can erode away, but comes back brilliantly white after additional rain.”
Visitors are hoping Death Valley’s rain in Summer 2021 will bring for a more special spring bloom in the next season for which the park is generally known. However, its occurrence is very extraordinary.
In the next 16-day period, California will be furthermore the driest state in the USA, but some rainfall from Ex-hurricane Nora is expected /https://mkweather.com/ex-hurricane-nora-brings-heavy-rains-and-floods-in-southwest-the-usa//. Monsoon rains in the Southwest however will be continuing until October 2021, the rest of Autumn 2021 will be hot and dry /https://mkweather.com/autumn-2021-forecast-for-north-america-long-indian-summer-and-weaker-hurricane-season-such-as-expected//.
Source: wxcharts.com
