I keep thinking of a rock in a stream, positioned such that the water flowing over it creates a certain pattern of whorls and eddies. The stream dries out, and the rock is left high and dry. Then it rains, the water flows over it again, and the pattern of whorls and eddies returns.
Where did the pattern go while the stream was dry? Are the patterns you saw before and after the drought the same “thing”?