The world’s largest plughole! Huge 75 feet wide funnel that acts as overspill for Lake Berryessa is now in action again after California’s drought ended

• A hypnotizing whirlpool has opened up over California’s Lake Berryessa
• The mesmerizing effect is due to a water draining system in the lake’s dam
• The high-water levels may mark the end of California’s ongoing drought crisis 

A mesmerizing whirlpool has opened up in California’s Lake Berryessa as the state’s battle against devastating droughts has finally cooled. 

Officially named the ‘Morning Glory Spillway’, the bizarre effect is due to a water-draining system that was installed when the body of water was dammed in 1953.

It is essentially a giant concrete funnel, 75-ft wide at the top and 28-ft at the base, which stands just below the brink of the dam’s walls at 440-ft to prevent it from overflowing. 

The hypnotic spiral is rare due to California’s scorching climate, and it has only been open around two dozen times since it was built over seven decades ago. 

But the flute’s emergence will be a welcome sight to state officials as it spells the end of an extended ‘megadrought’ that saw over 1,200 wells run dry and half a million acres of farmland become barren at its peak last year. 

The bizarre whirlpool effect is a result of a large cement funnel constructed to stop Lake Beryessa’s dam from overflowing

The huge spillway was conceived by engineers as authorities looked to build a dam on Lake Berryessa to provide electricity and water to the northern Bay Area. 

When water levels in the region increase, the giant bell-mouth draws thousands of people as they gather to catch a glimpse of the unorthodox tourist attraction. 

‘It really is dramatic to watch,’ said Kevin Slang, a Solano Irrigation District operations manager, to the New York Times. 

‘I went up there the other day and there were about 15 drones flying around and people taking videos,’ he told the outlet in February 2017, at a time when the glory hole was open. 

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.

The mesmerizing spiral is rare due to California’s scorching climate, and it has only emerged around two dozen times in the last seven decades. The funnel can be seen in this image (left)

In 2019, striking footage captured the moment a cormorant was swept into the depths of Lake Berryessa when the whirlpool opened up 

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. 

‘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. 

The emergence of the glory hole comes after the ongoing drought that devastated California last year was brought to an end by heavy rainfall and even high levels of snowfall in some areas. 

At its peak in August, the severe drought had left more than 531,000 acres of farmland unplanted, which was a 36 percent hike from the same time in 2022. 

California endured an extensive ‘megadrought’ that scorched the state’s resources, leaving thousands of acres of farmland barren and evaporating its water reservoir levels> Pictured: An aerial view of the Pit River Bridge stretches over drought-stricken Lake Shasta on July 5, 2022

Residents in some areas of California were warned to conserve water due to the ongoing drought. Pictured: Dried up Horseshoe Lake near Mammoth Lakes, California on July 28, 2022

Residents in the small town of Coalinga were warned they were within months of running out of water, as water capacity in reservoirs across the state also reached dangerously low levels. 

Around 85 percent of the state was under a severe drought in January 2023, according to US Drought Monitor. As of July 2023, this figure stood at just 19 percent. 

The variability of California’s climate is a frequent issue for state officials, with Governor Gavin Newsom signing legislation in 2021 to pour $536 million into drought and fire prevention policies. 

Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, noted the challenge at a press conference in March, where she said: ‘Water management in California is complicated.’

‘It is made even more complex during these challenging climate conditions where we see swings between very very, dry, to very very wet, back to dry,’ she continued. ‘We’re now back into wet.’ 

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