In some parts of the country, cold weather is threatening crops. Meanwhile, California has been so unseasonably wet that its deserts are experiencing what’s called a “super bloom.” After years of drought, the normally arid desert is lush. “It just looks like a sea of flowers,” says Janet Gordon, a geologist from Los Angeles. “You got purple, red, yellows and blues,” adds Joe Sheidness, visiting from San Diego. “It’s fantastic,” says Dennis Brian, from Reno, Nev., who says he was a flower child in the 1960s.