Thanks to high amounts of winter rainfall, California may be lucky enough to enjoy another superbloom in 2026. Normally, the state only experiences superblooms — rare events in which countless dormant wildflowers bloom simultaneously — once every decade or so. However, there was a superbloom as recently as 2023, and those bright orange blooms might return this year.

Those unusually heavy winter rains may have created ideal conditions for the natural phenomenon in certain Southern California desert areas, according to CBS 8 San Diego. Some of these regions received about 3.5 inches of rain over the two months leading up to January 2026. Typically, the area gets about 5 inches of rain, so it has already received roughly 70% of its annual average.

Where to see the California superbloom

When in bloom, the wildflowers blanket desert landscapes and hillsides in color between March and April. One of the top places to witness these carpets of vibrant flowers will be Death Valley. Toward the end of 2025, the National Weather Service reported that Death Valley had experienced record-breaking rainfall — a good superbloom sign. Some people have already noticed early blooms popping up in the area, which indicates that the ground is ready to produce more expansive wildflower fields.

Blooms have also been spotted in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park near San Diego. Other popular viewing spots in Southern California include Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve State Natural Reserve, Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve. The 2026 wildflower season is expected to peak from March through April in low-elevation deserts and possibly extend into May and June in places with higher elevations.

The best national parks in California

While superbloom forecasts look the strongest in Southern California, there are still plenty of popular spots for spring wildflower viewing in central and Northern California. Some destinations include Carrizo Plain National Monument in San Luis Obispo County, North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve in Butte County and Mount Diablo State Park in Contra Costa County. Desert areas of neighboring states Nevada and Arizona may also see robust wildflower seasons in spring 2026, depending on the weather.

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What to know when planning your superbloom trip

The outlook may be promising, but keep in mind that hot, dry weather can deter a full superbloom. Temperatures have been higher than average in Southern California over the past month or so, and if things continue this way, it could ruin the expected blooms. Scientists and park officials are monitoring conditions closely to predict blooms.

If the superbloom does occur, visitors and locals alike are sure to flock to the hillsides to see the orange flowers. However, it’s important to visit in a way that respects and sustains the environment so that these flowers can continue blooming far into the future. So, stick to trails, avoid picking flowers and only enter authorized areas.

Bottom line

Hopeful visitors, cross your fingers for rain and cooler temperatures over the next few months. No matter which spot you choose, the California superbloom promises an unforgettable experience for anyone seeking vibrant spring wildflowers.

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Federal and local authorities are investigating a suspected biological laboratory found inside a Las Vegas residence that they said is owned by a person connected to a 2023 illegal biolaboratory probe in Central California.

A SWAT team with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department assisted the Federal Bureau of Investigation with serving a search warrant at a residence in northeast Las Vegas on Saturday, Jan. 31, according to police. During the search, police said investigators discovered “evidence of possible biological material to include refrigerators with vials containing unknown liquids.”

The search ended early on Monday, Feb. 2, and authorities said investigators recovered over 1,000 pieces of evidence from the residence.

“(Las Vegas police) utilized several technology platforms to safely enter and assess the location before investigators entered the home,” police said in a statement. “Some of that evidence included biological material and liquids that were meticulously collected and sent to FBI labs for testing.”

Further investigation revealed that the residence’s owner was tied to a 2023 illegal biolaboratory investigation in rural California, according to police. The owner, Jia Bei Zhu, has been in federal custody on charges related to the California investigation.

Another suspect, Ori Solomon, 55, was arrested in connection with the Las Vegas investigation and was booked into the Clark County Detention Center for disposing of and discharging hazardous waste, police said. Solomon was the property manager for the Las Vegas residence and a nearby home that was also searched, according to police.

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Laboratory-type equipment, containers with unknown substances discovered inside garage

In an update on Monday, Feb. 2, police said they received information over a week ago that laboratory equipment and potentially hazardous materials may have been stored inside a residence in northeast Las Vegas.

“As investigators looked deeper, they learned the property owner was connected to a 2023 illegal biological laboratory investigation in Reedley, California,” police said in a statement. “In that California case, investigators reportedly discovered materials possibly associated with infectious diseases, including hepatitis, COVID-19, HIV, malaria, and other potentially dangerous pathogens.”

Though it was unknown at the time whether similar materials were present at the Las Vegas residence, police said they launched a joint investigation with the FBI, local fire departments, and other state agencies.

Shortly before 6 a.m. local time on Saturday, Jan. 31, police said a SWAT team served a search warrant at the residence and removed three people who were renting rooms inside the home but were not involved in the investigation. Investigators then searched a locked garage at the home they believed contained the potentially hazardous materials.

During the search, police said they deployed drones and a tactical robot to clear the area and conduct air sampling before personnel wearing protective equipment entered the garage.

At a news conference, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said investigators immediately observed numerous items, including laboratory-type equipment and containers with an unknown liquid substance, that were “consistent in appearance to the items found and described” in the 2023 California investigation.

“Initial search of the garage… identified a bio-safety hood, a bio-safety sticker, a centrifuge, multiple refrigerators, red-brown unknown liquids in gallon-sized containers and refrigerated vials with unknown liquids,” Christopher Delzotto, FBI Special Agent in Charge at the Las Vegas office, said during the news conference.

Police noted that due to the “unknown nature of the materials,” the operation required multiple controlled entries and decontamination procedures. Evidence collection continued through Sunday, Feb. 1, and the materials were later transferred to an FBI laboratory for testing.

Remediation of the residence was completed at about 2:30 a.m. local time on Monday, Feb. 2, and final site checks were conducted before the scene was cleared and confirmed safe, according to McMahill.

‘Fairly shocking’: Secret medical lab in California stored bioengineered mice laden with COVID

2023 California biolab investigation

A monthslong investigation into a rural California warehouse uncovered an illegal laboratory filled with samples of infectious agents, medical waste, and mice bioengineered “to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus,” local authorities said in July 2023.

At the time, authorities said a Chinese medical company registered in Nevada was operating the unlicensed facility in Reedley, California, a small city southeast of Fresno, California. Health officials launched an investigation into the facility in December 2022 after a code enforcement officer noticed a garden hose attached to a building that was presumed to be vacant and had no active business license.

Further inspection revealed that the facility housed various chemicals, suspected biological materials, bodily fluids, and hundreds of lab mice, among other lab supplies, according to court documents.

In October 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California announced that Zhu, who also used various other aliases, had been arrested for manufacturing and distributing misbranded medical devices and for making false statements to the Food and Drug Administration.

From December 2020 to March 2023, prosecutors said Zhu and other co-conspirators manufactured, imported, sold, and distributed hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 test kits in the United States and China. They also manufactured and distributed test kits for HIV, pregnancy, clinical urinalysis, and other medical conditions.

Prosecutors accused Zhu and his co-conspirators of operating through the companies, Universal Meditech Incorporated (UMI) and Prestige Biotech Incorporated (PBI), which were based in Fresno and Reedley. The companies had no authorization to manufacture and distribute the test kits.

“When questioned by FDA officials, Zhu made false statements about his identity, his ownership and control of UMI and PBI, and the activities of UMI and PBI,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Zhu was indicted in November 2023, according to prosecutors. In August 2024, prosecutors said Zhu faced additional charges of conspiracy and wire fraud.

As an undergraduate studying psychology at Chico State, Gabriel Muñoz enrolled in a program that paid him to do summer research and matched him up with mentors and gave him access to career workshops.

The experience — funded by a federal grant for Hispanic Serving Institutions — sparked a love for research and he plans to enroll in a master’s program in psychology at Chico State, earn a PhD and become a college professor.

However, Muñoz will be among the last students to benefit from the program.

Chico State is losing more than $3 million in federal funds, as part of a larger cancellation of more than $350 million in grants to minority-serving institutions or MSIs around the country. Now those colleges are working to find ways to replace or do without the money, which covered research grants, laboratory equipment, curricular materials and student support programs — benefits that extended to all students.

In making the cuts last fall, the Trump administration decided that MSI programs were racially discriminatory because institutions had to enroll a percentage of students from a certain race or ethnicity to apply for funding. To be considered a Hispanic Serving Institution, or HSI, a college’s undergraduate enrollment must be at least 25% Latino.

As congressional leaders argued over final budget legislation amid the partial government shutdown this week, it appeared that some education funding, including money for HSI grants, would be restored to the proposed budget. But the Education Department would retain the authority to decide how, or if, that funding would be distributed.

Serving all students

Experts emphasize that these colleges serve many low-income and first-generation students, regardless of ethnicity.

“The thing about HSIs is that they’re so diverse,” said Marybeth Gasman, executive director of the Center for Minority-Serving Institutions at Rutgers University. “They have really large numbers of Latinx students, but they also have large numbers of Black students and Asian students and low-income white students, too. I have to stress how short-sighted it is for the federal government to take this money away.”

Chico State is one of 171 California HSIs, including universities and community colleges, and 615 across the country, according to the Hispanic Assn. of Colleges and Universities. Less than a third of these institutions nationwide received HSI funding, meaning roughly 200 colleges are now grappling with how to deal with the cuts.

Created in 1992, the HSI program was designed to help Latino students succeed in college and earn degrees by boosting support for them. Across the country, Latino students graduate at lower rates than their white counterparts — about 52% compared to 65%, according to a 2023 analysis of 2021 federal data by Excelencia in Education. And 2023 census data showed that about 21% of Latino adults had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 42% of white adults.

“It is not about affirmative action. This is not about picking students and giving students a plus because they are Black, Latino or otherwise,” said Francisca Fajana, director of racial justice strategy at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, a nonprofit that advocates for Latino legal rights. “It’s really about the institutions themselves building capacity.”

The Hispanic Assn. of Colleges and Universities and LatinoJustice PRLDEF filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit brought by Students for Fair Admissions, which opposes HSI funding.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said in an email that funding for HSIs was cut because the solicitor general found it unconstitutional, in a response to that lawsuit.

How the cuts hit one college

Chico State has roughly 13,000 students, about 38% of whom are Latino, according to federal data. Since earning the HSI designation a decade ago, the university has received roughly $26 million in grant funding, said Teresita Curiel, the university’s director of Latinx equity and success.

Among the programs being cut is Bridges to Baccalaureate, which provided undergraduate research opportunities and transfer student mentoring for Latino and low-income students in the behavioral and social sciences, and one called Destino that helped prepare STEM students for the workforce.

“If we’re going to be successful as a university, we have to intentionally think about how we’re going to support Latinx students — grant money or not,” said Leslie Cornick, Chico State’s provost, who is now working, with other campus leaders, to make up for lost funding.

Sabrina Marquez, who manages the Bridges to Baccalaureate and Future Scholars programs, said that in the two years those grants have been active, more than 80 students have been paid to do research, lead summer orientation or serve as mentors to transfer students.

Lupe Jimenez, who oversees the college’s Destino program, says he tries to make Latino students feel welcome on campus and in his office.

(Olivia Sanchez / The Hechinger Report)

Ysabella Marin, a senior psychology major, said her research in the Future Scholars Program has focused on the impact of social media on men’s body image.

“To me, research was always something that was kind of scary, to be honest,” Marin said. But she said she felt empowered by her experience — more confident, and more comfortable talking to professors. Now she wants to enroll in a master’s degree program to study developmental psychology.

At other colleges, leaders have been working to keep similar programs running.

At Southwestern College in the San Diego area, college President Mark Sanchez said the school’s leaders will not sacrifice a program that helps first-year students adjust to campus life. The college serves a bi-national community of students living in the United States and Mexico; many are the first in their family to go to college. Sanchez said the program has been extended to students in their second year. Instead of being funded with HSI grant money, Sanchez said the programs will be paid for by the college’s general fund.

Cal State Channel Islands has received roughly $40 million in HSI grant funding in the last decade, said Jessica Lavariega Monforti, the university’s provost. Most of the money has gone toward programs to support the academic success of Latino and low-income students, she said.

Among those being discontinued is one called Soar at CI, which in part strengthened transfer pipelines from nearby community colleges, she said. Students offered career mentoring to younger students, hosted a podcast and invited alumni back to campus to host workshops on career preparedness. Lavariega Monforti said that leaders will try to incorporate aspects of this program into other areas.

At Chico State, Matthew Hernandez, a senior computer science major, enrolled in both a computer science boot camp, funded through Destino, and a calculus boot camp in the summer before his freshman year. He said he went from scoring 44/100 before the boot camp to a near perfect score by the end.

Data from the university show that students involved in such STEM support programs were more likely to stay enrolled after their first year — 92% compared to 86% of their peers in similar majors who did not receive support. They were also more likely to graduate — 63% within six years, compared to 58% of their peers without assistance.

Muñoz said he is not abandoning graduate school aspirations, despite limited funding opportunities due to the cuts. He said he plans to pay what he can out of pocket and apply for student loans to cover the rest.

Sanchez writes for the the Hechinger Report, which produced this story and is a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.