flash flooding summer 2022

regehr

regehr

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Mar 28, 2012
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I've seen a bunch of flash flood warnings and alerts for S Utah over the last few days, anyone have pictures or videos or stories? Hopefully everyone's being careful and safe!
 
Same for over here in W. Colorado. They've closed Glenwood Canyon (I-70) several times worrying about the Grizzly Fire burn scar, but so far so good and this week now looks clear and hot. At least the monsoons are back.
 
About two weeks ago we walked into the wilderness in southern Arizona. There had been some storms overnight so we checked the radar and did see a lot of green returns moving off but no yellow or orange showing major cells. Everything was bone dry and not even a smattering of raindrops, nothing. We crossed one major canyon and the stream bed was dry. We did some beautiful hiking and exploring with an excellent breakfast and needed to hump back for an appointment with the air conditioning crew. When we got back to that canyon the creek was a roaring roller coaster of white capped muddy roar. We hiked up and down but no chance of crossing with it flashing and some folks had been there for a good while.

It is too hot this time of year to be hiking mid day so we get about half of it before sunrise. Yes we are addicted and need that hiking fix year round. The only way out was a ten mile route to a bridge so we started moving and after a trail and old rocky jeep path we came to a dirt parking area where a guy said sure I’ll drive you all the way back and he did. The hydraulic power in a super rocky bed is just too dangerous to even mess with. We have seen that stream flash before several times but were always on the right side and if we thought there was a chance we hiked in other directions that were safer bets.

The stream bed is flowing with clear, beautiful water for now. Maps are among the most important thing in my kit and right up there with weather protective clothing and water. Sometimes you don’t know where you will be navigating or for how long due to safety decisions in the mountains and canyons.
 
futurafree said:
You can tell he's from Utah because at 8m45s as he's watching what must've seemed like the imminent death of two people in the car floating by, he exclaims, "Oh shoot."
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Yeah, good old Utah where a man has to say flippin' (women, too) and everyone's blessed. Well, most everyone. (I'm from Colorado but a Utah resident for the past eternity.)

I like what the ranger said about how flashfloods rejuvenate the land but are better w/o people in them.
 
We are under the same monsoonal flow with flash flood advisories. Colorado radar returns looked like it was really getting hammered earlier today and that went over almost to Salt Lake. Rain here too.

Capitol Reef is amazing. We have done some things there and once bushwhacked a big loop to the top and around. Reefs are the strangest and toughest things around. I hear some move to Torrey to hike there every day. Not a place to fool around in heavy monsoon season.
 
I am currently in Glenwood Springs Colorado and they have flashfloodt warnings out here too and Glenwood Canyon is closed. That’s interstate 70. I thought about moving to Torrey but it’s just too cold in the winter and they also get a lot of wind. But it’s amazing country.
 
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Rockskipper said:
I thought about moving to Torrey but it’s just too cold in the winter and they also get a lot of wind. But it’s amazing country.
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Totally agree, amazing but like everything on the Plateau ferocious winds are common and way too cold in winter for us too.
 
When we were staying in Boulde, Utah, in early May, we were amazed at the constant winds at the tiny house rented.

Question, what are you guys considering as “way too cold”?
 
Having grown up where winter temps were commonly way below zero (F) in NW Colorado, to me too cold is anything under about 25 degrees F windchill - the wind can really make a diff.
 
KWC, We had to live on the Turtle Mountain Plateau (Rez) in North Dakota for two years when I was a teenager. It was common to see -40°. I left home and drifted to Florida to finish high school without the family and swore I’d never live anywhere cold again. Winters are mild in southern Arizona so anything below +40° I don’t care for. Lol The desert thins your blood after a while.

As for flash floods there is a canyon here we hike occasionally, Tanque Verde. There is a beautiful tall waterfall. In 1981 eight people died when it flashed and it took searchers five days to recover all of them.
 
Lol ....cold.... Come to island park,. Snow.... Come to island park....
 
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