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See rare rain drain spectacle on California lake from heavy downpours

Water flows into the iconic Glory Hole spillway at Monticello Dam Monday, Feb. 20 in Lake Berryessa, Calif. for the first time in more than a decade as heavy storms pound the state. 

Heavy rains have inundated parts of California, flooding neighborhoods and roads and causing hundreds of evacuations.

The state’s waterways are running at capacity in some areas, with lakes and rivers overflowing their banks from the intense rainfall.

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All the rain is also behind a rare spectacle in Napa County, that only occurs when the water levels reach a certain height on Lake Berryessa near the Monticello Dam. The lake has a spillway or drain, similar to a drain in a bathtub, which is breached when water levels rise more than 440 feet above sea level.

The lake's water spills over the funnel-shaped drain, called the Glory Hole, and flows 700 feet down to a creek below. From above, the drain looks like a bottomless pit that's sucking the water down and out of the lake in a whirlpool-like phenomenon.

The spillway can take in as much as 48,000 cubic feet of water per second when the lake reaches capacity. That's about the equivalent of draining half an Olympic-sized pool in one second, CBS News reported.

The last time locals saw water rushing through the drain on Lake Berryessa was back in 2006, some 11 years ago.

World's Largest Drain in Action

The Glory Hole Spillway at Lake Berryessa is active for its first time in over a decade!

Posted by Matador Network on Tuesday, February 21, 2017

The coolest thing ever!!! Definitely recommend taking the drive to see this. The Glory Hole at Lake Berryessa

Posted by Kiana Fisher on Wednesday, February 22, 2017