Hint Of Relief From Years Of Drought Evident In Wildflower Bloom

AMBOY, CA - FEBRUARY 29: Desert sunflowers begin the annual desert bloom near Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark as a near-normal rain season follows a near-record dry season that lead to a wave of massive wildfires across southern California in 2007, on February 29, 2008 near Amboy, California. Weather experts are saying that it would take years of above-normal rainfall to refill the shrinking reservoirs of the West and to recover from a drought that has plagued western states since the end of the 1990s. Very few wildflowers were seen in California deserts in 2007. Amboy Crater is a symmetrically-shaped cinder cone near Mojave National Preserve in one of the youngest volcanic fields in the nation. The last eruption period occurred 500 years ago. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)