A mesmerizing whirlpool has opened up in California‘s Lake Berryessa as relentless storms have swelled the state’s rivers past capacity.
The ‘Morning Glory Spillway,’ as it’s officially known, is a unique, funnel-shaped drain within Lake Berryessa, installed when the lake was created by damming the Putah Creek in 1957.
The spillway, a 72-foot-wide funnel-shaped concrete pipe, begun to gush this week.
This unusual structure, designed to prevent the lake from overflowing, hasn’t been activated since 2019, and has drawn onlookers to the man-made reservoir, located 70 miles northeast of San Francisco.
Acting as a drainage system, the spillway channels excess water from the lake into Putah Creek on the other side of Monticello Dam.
This ‘glory hole’ spillway, as it is more colloquially referred to, is a rare breed. Only a few such structures exist in the United States, including a smaller one at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area near Shasta, which has also spilled over this week.
‘People were taking pictures and videos, just standing in awe,’ Peter Kilkus, editor of the Lake Berryessa News, told the New York Times.
He witnessed the spectacle Wednesday morning alongside about two dozen others.
A mesmerizing whirlpool has opened up in California’s Lake Berryessa as relentless storms have swelled the state’s rivers past capacity
This reoccurrence of the glory hole, which has only happened three other times in the past two decades, has drawn onlookers to the man-made reservoir, located 70 miles northeast of San Francisco
Chris Lee, general manager of the Solano County Water Agency, called it ‘mesmerizing to watch,’ adding, ‘It’s not something you can see in very many places in the world.’
The spillway’s unusual design is a product of its location. Nestled in a narrow canyon, Lake Berryessa’s topography made it difficult to construct a dam with a more conventional spillway.
The ‘glory hole’ functions much like the overflow drain in a bathtub, preventing the reservoir from overflowing when water levels become too high.
While the sight is certainly dramatic, the spillway has only been activated a handful of times in recent history, including in 2006, 2017, and 2019.
Last year, the lake level came within a fraction of an inch of triggering the spill.
DailyMail.com reported that the glory hole briefly reemerged in 2023 after the ongoing drought that devastated California in 2022 was brought to an end by heavy rainfall and even high levels of snowfall in some areas.
Jay Cuetara, the supervising water resources engineer for the Solano County Water Agency, explained that the combination of two wet winters and the recent torrential rains finally pushed the reservoir over the edge.
‘We started the summer with a topped-off lake, and then this winter we had a lot of these storms that produced a lot of runoff. That did it,’ he told the New York Times.
In 2019, striking footage captured the moment a cormorant was swept into the depths of Lake Berryessa when the whirlpool opened up
Lake Berryessa, created in 1958 by the construction of the Monticello Dam, is a vital water source for Solano County, though it resides in Napa County.
Beyond its practical function, the lake is a popular recreational destination.
But the ‘glory hole,’ with its odd appearance and dramatic performance, remains its most iconic feature.
For those hoping to witness this spectacle, Cuetara anticipates the spillway will remain active through the weekend and likely for another week or two.
While the water current is known not to be strong, local swimmers and sailors are warned to avoid the spillway when it opens up due to the tremendous water pressure within the waterfall’s epicenter.
In 1997, a woman fell to her death after plummeting down the several-hundred-foot drop, at the bottom of which is an 8ft-wide pipe that routes water down a creek.
Striking footage caught another victim being pulled into the depths by the whirlpool in 2019, when a cormorant was swept up by the high tide.
Brionna Ruff, the spokesperson for the Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the spillway, said it is unlikely the cormorant could have survived the perilous fall.
Lake Berryessa, created in 1958 by the construction of the Monticello Dam, is a vital water source for Solano County, though it resides in Napa County
The spillway is anticipated to remain active through the weekend and likely for another week or two
‘From what I understand that water is going down really fast and when things come out the other side… I don’t want to get really graphic,’ Ruff told SFGate.com.
When the funnel opened up that year, it was just the second time in 12 years that water levels had been high enough for the effect to occur.