By Amanda Mitchell, AccuWeather staff writer
Areas of Southern California may have almost perfect conditions for a ‘super bloom’ of wildflowers in the coming weeks.
The Anza-Borrego State Desert Park in Southern California is currently glowing with purple and golden yellow wildflowers throughout its 600,000 acres. Thousands of verbenas, desert sunflowers and evening dune primrose cover the land, with more to come.
“It’s going to be better than it’s been in the last dozen or so years,” said Mike McElhatton, educational program director of The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Natural History Association.
A photo taken in late February showing California's wildflower super bloom in the wake of a wet winter (Ray and Christina Bathan)
The perfect storm has been brewing since October. For over five months, Southern California has received steady rainfall, uncommon in this desert area. This reliable rain has created a continual dense, moist soil allowing wildflowers to flourish.
In the areas surrounding the state park, rainfall can often be extremely localized. For instance, flooding can occur in one area of the park, while it's not even misting in another. Yet, that wasn't the case this winter.
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“The rain has hit us nearly perfectly,” McElhatton said. “We are going to have a really widespread bloom; in the past, we have seen only small concentrations in select valleys. This year, it already appears that a vast majority of the 50-mile park will be in bloom.”
It isn’t just those working within the park that have noticed the bloom. Towns bordering the park have already began to experience visitors, with campgrounds quickly filling up. Everyone seemingly interested in getting a glimpse at the bright display the flowers put on.
In the coming weeks, the views are only expected to get better as the California poppy comes fully into bloom in the beginning of March, covering the ground in orange.
The last #SuperBloom of our state’s flower was the spring of 2017..I captured this image then from #SkyFOX over the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve near Lancaster-The poppies are already exploding across the hills & should eventually bloom in the Antelope Valley.. @FOXLA
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Purple Desert Sand Verbena fields in the Santa Rosa dunes (see desert green NASA Worldview tinyurl.com/yxqcq5cw). Currently at about 500 acres, and still growing. This photo was taken this morning from Coyote mountain, about 7.5 miles away from these flower fields (Sicco Rood)
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A storm front on the west side is not able to go much past the peninsular mountain ranges here, so the sun was able to light up one of the purple desert sand verbena's this morning (Photo: Sicco Rood).
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