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Devils Lake, a terminal lake in eastern North Dakota, rose more than 9 m between 1992 and 2013, producing a 286% increase in lake area, and causing more than US$1 billion in direct damages. An annual volumetric lake water budget is developed from monthly hydroclimatological variables for the period 1951-2010 to investigate the rapid lake expansion. The lake is an amplifier terminal lake in which long-term climatic changes are amplified by positive feedback mechanisms, causing the lake to transition from a precipitation-dominated to a runoff-dominated water budget. Factors specific to the Devils Lake Basin further amplify this positive feedback relationship. These include principles of fill-spill hydrology that operate between individual sub-basins within the closed basin, and between the innumerable wetland complexes within each sub-basin. These factors create a pronounced non-stationary precipitation-runoff relationship in the basin during both long-term wetting and drying phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]