Death Valley flooded by monsoon rains (video)

What if we turned Death Valley into a massive reservoir, a lake to modify the weather and landscape? Could it work, or would there be unintended consequences?

(FOX5 Las Vegas) Images of flash flooding were captured near Death Valley National Park, as a local station reported August 3, 2022.

Flooding in Death Valley, August 2022

(Wisdom Quarterly) One intrepid journalist and photographer went out into the flood, using a drone and his car in waist-deep water. The hottest desert in the United States became a disaster zone as the asphalt roads were washed out and destroyed by the water. The park is closed until they can be repaired.

What makes something a "desert" is not high temperatures. It is the temperature extremes -- dipping too cold and climbing too hot -- and the inability of the soil to retain water. It runs off, eroding topsoil with it. So it is not the lack of rain that makes for desertification but rather the series of events that follow: loss of topsoil, loss of plants, loss of roots that retain the soil, loss of moisture, temperature extremes, gravel, sand, over mineralization, rocks, floods, and so on.