According to this theory, Lake Tengger formed together with other lakes in the Badanjilin Desert and the Qilian Mountains between 35,000 - 22,000 years before present. At that time Lake Tengger would have reached its highest stand, the eastern part of the Tengger Desert was covered with smaller lakes. At the same time as Lake Tengger reached maximum levels, lake levels rose also in Tibet and northern Xinjiang. The formation of these lakes in the lowlands has been explained with the glacial climate, which reduced evaporation without decisively lowering temperatures and increased meridional temperature gradients which resulted in stronger baroclinic storms. Later, it is possible that a weakening of the East Asian Monsoon caused the lakes to dry up during full glacial conditions.