Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
see lightning above, but there's nothing more exciting than standing at a window and watching the show. And I'd love to SEE flash flooding...of course, not be hiking or camping in some ravine, but if there were a way to see it coming but not be in its path...
Reviving this thread because of the current news story about flash flooding that killed 10 people over the past weekend.
Steve Stevens, a volunteer fire fighter with Water Wheel Search and Rescue, said visitors should stay away when there are flash flood warnings.
“The clouds over on the other side of the mountain can be dumping buckets, and all of a sudden there’s a wall of water coming through that just wipes out everything in its path,” said Stevens, who has lived in the area for 20 years.
Sudden flooding in canyons has been deadly before. In 2015, seven people were killed in Utah’s Zion National Park when they were trapped during a flash flood while hiking in a popular canyon that was as narrow as a window in some spots and several hundred feet deep.
In 1997, 11 hikers were killed near Page, Arizona, after a wall of water from a rainstorm miles upstream tore through a narrow, twisting series of corkscrew-curved walls on Navajo land known as Lower Antelope Canyon.
Most flash floods in Albuquerque itself are generally not life threatening due to water runoff management in the form of concrete walled arroyos (drainage ditches) and storm drains. Going into the arroyos themselves right before or during flash flooding is virtually suicide, though, and being in the canyon bottoms of the Sandias or in the normally dry washes at the edge of the developed area is risky. During the most intense events the storm drain system can become overloaded and then even some of the surface roads in the city can turn into shallow rivers with fast moving water.
One time my Dad and were backpacking in Domingo Baca canyon (accessed via Elena Gallegos picnic area) and we pitched our tents on a grassy bank about 10 feet above and 10 feet laterally from little burbling brook which was maybe 6 inches deep and a long stride across.
All night it rained, but I didn't notice how hard it was coming down being asleep most of the night. When I awoke, The "brook" was now a 10 foot deep and 15 foot wide torrent almost lapping at my tent's wall.
The flash floods are amazing events though and as long as you are on high ground, the novelty of seeing raging whitewater in Albuquerque can't be beat.
Regarding lightning in New Mexico; the state is such a hot spot for lighting during the monsoon season, particularly in the region around Socorro, that there is a national lightning research laboratory near there:
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
10 die in Arizona flash flood...
