Snow in the hottest place on Earth? Photo of Death Valley covered in white puzzles some

It looks like the hottest place on Earth got pummeled by a snow storm before winter has even begun.

A photo of Death Valley National Park covered in a white dusting left some people puzzled.

“Is that...SNOW at Death Valley?!” the U.S. Department of the Interior said on Facebook.

While it might look like snow blanketed the park known for regularly topping 120 degrees, that’s not the case. The park was actually covered in salt.

Park rangers said a recent rainfall caused the park to sprout something called “salt flowers.”

“This phenomenon is caused when rain soaks into the soil dissolving the salts present beneath the surface,” rangers said on Facebook. “When this rain evaporates, it pulls the dissolved salts to the surface through capillary action leaving a fresh salty crust behind.”

The coating will erode over time, but it will come back white when it rains again, according to the department.

People on social media were in awe of the salty landscape.

“Wow,” one person said. “I didn’t know that! Amazing!”

Other people said they experienced the phenomenon firsthand.

“When we were there there were salt crystals that looked like snow and ground that looked like packed ice,” another commenter said.

Snow isn’t impossible at Death Valley, according to the National Park Service. In the winter, the temperature at low elevation can occasionally reach freezing, but it drops about 5 degrees for every thousand vertical feet in elevation up the valley’s surrounding mountain ranges.

“Winter storms moving inland from the Pacific Ocean must pass over mountain ranges to continue east,” the National Park Service said. “As the clouds rise up they cool and the moisture condenses to fall as rain or snow on the western side of the ranges.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2021 at 5:38 PM with the headline "Snow in the hottest place on Earth? Photo of Death Valley covered in white puzzles some."