Southern California superblooms seen from space

After a deluge of atmospheric rivers this winter, California’s wildflowers are erupting in a superbloom, a vibrant display that this spring was visible from space.

Images captured April 6 by a camera on the Landsat 9 observational satellite show the blooming desert in Southern California’s Carrizo Plain National Monument. The satellite’s Operational Land Imager-2 camera, focusing in on the plains of southeastern San Luis Obispo County, show green and yellow swaths of land that were brown a year ago.

In addition to Southern California’s superblooms, wildflowers are erupting from the soil across the state this spring. These events, which occur between February and April after periods of high precipitation, typically draw visitors from near and far to view the blooming flowers.

In Sonoma County, fields and meadows are being dominated by electric-gold California poppies and vibrant blue irises.

“We’ll see an impressive wildflower bloom this year,” said Len Mazur, Sonoma County Regional Parks botanist, in late March. “It should be one of the best over the last 10 years.”

Over 1,000 wildflower species exist in Sonoma County. These flowers can grow without being seeded in habitats like oak woodlands, grasslands, coastal bluffs, beach dunes, scrublands and other niche places. The best blooms are in shallow soils, rocky areas or recently burned areas, said Michelle Halbur, preserve ecologist at Pepperwood Preserve outside Santa Rosa.

Looking for wildflowers in Sonoma County? Click on the poppy icons below to see locations that promise colorful arrays of blooming flowers.