Was 2024 a superbloom year?
Never called a superbloom
No — the National Park Service, California State Parks and the BLM looked at the 2023–24 winter and never reached for the word. The rain was there — Death Valley, Antelope Valley and the Carrizo Plain cleared the big-year mark — and the word still didn't follow.
What the agency said
the National Park Service, California State Parks and the BLM
A wet winter that none of the three agencies called a superbloom: Death Valley said one was not expected, State Parks forecast a better-than-average spring and left it there, and the BLM used no such word for the Carrizo Plain.
The rain behind it: 2023–24
A desert spring is paid for by the winter before it. These are the season totals at the nearest long-running weather station to each desert, October 1 through May 31, against the totals that big springs have historically followed.
| Desert | 2023–24 rain | Big-year mark | How it landed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Death Valley | 3.11" | 2.0" | Into the big-year range |
| Anza-Borrego | 2.83" | 3.5" | Under the big-year mark |
| Antelope Valley | 7.14" | 5.0" | Past the big-year mark |
| Carrizo Plain | 15.31" | 6.0" | Into the big-year range |
Measured, in the order of the table, at Death Valley (Furnace Creek), Borrego Desert Park, Lancaster (Fox Field) and New Cuyama — the nearest long-running station to each desert. Records from NOAA.