Was 2026 a superbloom year?
A superbloom on the record
Yes — the National Park Service, and NASA for the Carrizo Plain put 2026 on the record at Death Valley and the Carrizo Plain. We didn't decide that, and we don't decide any of them: the sources are on this page.
What the agency said
On the record with the National Park Service, and NASA for the Carrizo Plain
Death Valley records 2026 as a superbloom on its own wildflower page. On the Carrizo Plain the bloom was published from orbit by NASA rather than announced by the BLM, which kept to its usual wording.
What made it: A record wet autumn in Death Valley — the park reported 2.41 inches across September to November 2025 — with seedlings up by December; roughly double the usual rain on the Carrizo Plain, and soil moisture well above average there by February.
Fall rain before it: 2.41", September through November, as Death Valley reports it. The park counts its autumn rain separately because a desert annual that never germinates in the fall has nothing to bloom with in the spring.
NPS — Death Valley wildflowers · NASA Earth Observatory, March 2026
And where the word stopped
California State Parks
The same winter that gave Death Valley a superbloom was called moderate-to-strong for Anza-Borrego and the poppy reserve in the State Parks desert outlook — good, and not the word.
The rain behind it: 2025–26
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 | 2025–26 rain | Big-year mark | How it landed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Death Valley | 2.57" | 2.0" | Past the big-year mark |
| Anza-Borrego | 4.44" | 3.5" | Past the big-year mark |
| Antelope Valley | 8.01" | 5.0" | Into the big-year range |
| Carrizo Plain | 11.55" | 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.