Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater body west of the Mississippi River, reemerged in 2023 in the San Joaquin Valley, California, covering more than 46,000 hectares of agricultural land. This area is more than four times the size of Paris intra muros, and it appeared on a lakebed that had been thought to have been permanently converted into farmland. The lake returned after 124 years of absence, following exceptional precipitation that caused the four rivers that once fed it—the Kings, Kaweah, Tule, and Kern—to return to their former channels. These rivers had previously been diverted and dammed in the 1950s and 1960s for irrigation, including the Pine Flat Dam on the Kings River and the Success Dam on the Tule River. Tulare Lake was once a major water body, approximately four times larger than Lake Tahoe, with ports and a ferry system. However, by the late 19th century, it had dried up, and its bed became one of the most productive agricultural regions in the United States. Crops like cotton, tomatoes, pistachios, almonds, and dairy products are now grown there, and the area was once a target for settlers seeking new land. The lake has reemerged periodically in the past, such as in 1983 and again in 1997 and 1998, when it covered about 8,000 hectares and caused significant damage. In 2023, the situation was much more severe, with more than 114,000 acres of land flooded. The return of Tulare Lake in 2023 was driven by extreme weather conditions, including 12 atmospheric rivers—rivers of water vapor that bring torrential rains. In the southern Sierra Nevada, where the lake’s watershed is located, snowmelt reached 296% of the average by early April. This led to an overflow of water that exceeded the capacity of the reservoirs of the four rivers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took an unusual step by releasing water from the Kings River into the lakebed, which caused thousands of acres of farmland to remain unsown that summer. Farms and homes were evacuated, and hundreds of agricultural buildings and residences were flooded, leading to billions of dollars in losses across counties like Fresno, Kern, Kings, and Tulare. Groundwater pumping by farms has exacerbated the situation by lowering the valley floor, making the land more vulnerable to flooding. In some areas, the ground loses about 30 centimeters per year, causing roads and canals to buckle. For example, the town of Corcoran had to raise its levees at great expense, and the Friant-Kern Canal lost 60% of its transport capacity, requiring a 33-mile section to be rebuilt. In the fall of 2023, restoration districts moved water from the lake to agricultural lands in Kings County, and evaporation helped reduce the lake’s level. Despite these efforts, the subbasins—including Tulare Lake, Tule, and Kaweah—are still classified as critically overexploited by the California Department of Water Resources.