Alkali Lake (Oregon) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Alkali Lake |
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Alkali Lake dry lakebed and surrounding desert
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 Alkali Lake
Location in Oregon
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| Location | Lake County, Oregon |
| Coordinates | 42°58′38″N 120°01′41″W / 42.97722°N 120.02806°W |
| Lake type | seasonal, alkali |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Surface elevation | 4,332 ft (1,320 m) |
Alkali Lake is a geographic sink in Lake County, Oregon, United States. It is in the Alkali Subbasin of the Summer Lake Basin watershed in southeastern Oregon, located 26 miles east of Christmas Valley, Oregon, northeast of Lake Abert, to the immediate west of Abert Rim and Highway 395.
Alkali Lake is thought to have reached a prehistoric maximum depth of 270.7 feet (82.5 meters) and covered about 1448.4 square miles (2,331 square kilometers). Since then, its water level has varied, with a drying trend. Notable features include dissolved alkaline salts averaging 10% of total brine weight in its seasonal waters and a nearby chemical disaster, Alkali Lake Chemical Waste Dump.
Plants
Plants known to occur in the dunes immediately north of the lake include:
- Buckwheat Family
- Goosefoot Family
- Mustard Family
- Stanleya or Guillenia sp.
- Evening-primrose family
- Desert Evening-primrose
- Parsley Family
- Rhysopterus plurijugus
- Phlox Family
- Great Basin Gilia
- Borage Family
- Matted Cryptantha
- Sunflower Family
- Desert Pincushion
- Gray Rabbitbrush
- Showy Townsend Daisy
Climate
According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Alkali Lake has a steppe climate, abbreviated "BSk" on climate maps.
| Climate data for Alkali Lake | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 63 (17) |
72 (22) |
78 (26) |
88 (31) |
97 (36) |
100 (38) |
108 (42) |
105 (41) |
101 (38) |
90 (32) |
75 (24) |
69 (21) |
108 (42) |
| Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 42.2 (5.7) |
46.1 (7.8) |
51.2 (10.7) |
59.1 (15.1) |
69.1 (20.6) |
77.9 (25.5) |
87.7 (30.9) |
86.4 (30.2) |
78.1 (25.6) |
65.8 (18.8) |
49.9 (9.9) |
41.9 (5.5) |
63 (17) |
| Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 19.2 (−7.1) |
22.5 (−5.3) |
25.1 (−3.8) |
28.7 (−1.8) |
35 (2) |
42.2 (5.7) |
46.8 (8.2) |
45.5 (7.5) |
37.1 (2.8) |
29.6 (−1.3) |
24.4 (−4.2) |
18.8 (−7.3) |
31.2 (−0.4) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −38 (−39) |
−26 (−32) |
−11 (−24) |
6 (−14) |
4 (−16) |
23 (−5) |
30 (−1) |
26 (−3) |
14 (−10) |
−2 (−19) |
−10 (−23) |
−33 (−36) |
−38 (−39) |
| Average precipitation inches (mm) | 0.61 (15) |
0.54 (14) |
0.77 (20) |
0.84 (21) |
1.22 (31) |
1 (25) |
0.48 (12) |
0.64 (16) |
0.48 (12) |
0.69 (18) |
0.73 (19) |
0.66 (17) |
8.65 (220) |
| Average snowfall inches (cm) | 2.9 (7.4) |
1.8 (4.6) |
1.8 (4.6) |
1.4 (3.6) |
0.5 (1.3) |
0.1 (0.25) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0.2 (0.51) |
2 (5.1) |
3.8 (9.7) |
14.4 (37) |
| Average precipitation days | 5 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 58 |
