Is 2027 a superbloom year?
A superbloom isn't a mystery — it's an invoice the winter has to pay. Desert annuals sprout on soaking fall rain and keep going only if storms keep coming through February. That makes the outlook readable months early: watch the rain gauges at the deserts that put on the famous shows.
The 2026–27 rain year starts October 1. Until the first storms land, the honest answer is: nobody knows yet. Last winter (2025–26) cleared the big-year mark at every desert we track — the bars below show how each season stacked up.
Death Valley
Waiting on the rain year
The 2026–27 rain year starts October 1. What happens between then and February decides the spring.
The rarest show of them all. Furnace Creek sees about two inches of rain in an ordinary year; the springs people still talk about — 2005, 2016 — followed winters with well over twice that, kicked off by a soaking October storm.
Rain measured at the Death Valley (Furnace Creek) weather station (NOAA). Springs people still talk about here: 2005, 2016.
Anza-Borrego
Waiting on the rain year
The 2026–27 rain year starts October 1. What happens between then and February decides the spring.
The most reliable of the big desert blooms. Borrego Springs needs a few well-spaced winter storms; when the season tops about three and a half inches, the flats along Henderson Canyon Road usually deliver.
Rain measured at the Borrego Desert Park weather station (NOAA). Springs people still talk about here: 2017, 2019, 2023.
Antelope Valley
Waiting on the rain year
The 2026–27 rain year starts October 1. What happens between then and February decides the spring.
Poppies are grass-country flowers, not true desert ones — the reserve needs a genuinely wet winter to go wall-to-wall orange, and a dry one leaves the hills mostly green-brown.
Rain measured at the Lancaster (Fox Field) weather station (NOAA). Springs people still talk about here: 2017, 2019, 2023.
Carrizo Plain
Waiting on the rain year
The 2026–27 rain year starts October 1. What happens between then and February decides the spring.
The biggest canvas in California. The plain needs a truly wet year to run yellow border to border, and when it happens the bloom is visible from the Temblor ridge — and from orbit.
Rain measured at the New Cuyama weather station (NOAA). Springs people still talk about here: 2017, 2019, 2023.
The flowers that make the show
- California poppies at the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve — best late March into early April
- California poppies at Walker Canyon — best early March into early April
- Goldfields on the Carrizo Plain — best late March into mid-April
- Tidy tips on the Carrizo Plain — best late March into mid-April
- Desert gold in Death Valley — best late February into early March
- Desert gold in Anza-Borrego — best early March into late March
- Desert sand verbena in Anza-Borrego — best late February into late March
- Dune evening primrose in Anza-Borrego — best early March into late March
- Desert lilies in Anza-Borrego — best late February into mid-March