Weekend rain threatens flash flooding across saturated Southwest

Crews rescued people from flooded Phoenix-area vehicles before the new storms

Heavy rains starting Saturday evening were expected to bring flash flooding to already saturated areas of the U.S. Southwest through Monday, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters said as much as 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain could fall across the region, where a number of weather systems have brought a deadly autumn of soaking rains.

Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said rain-soaked ground across the region leaves little room for more water to soak in. “It’s not going to take much rainfall to be impactful at all in some of these locations just because of how saturated they are,” Santorelli said.

The weather service has issued flood watches for nearly all of Arizona and parts of southern Utah, southwestern Colorado and western New Mexico, in addition to part of southern Nevada. The watches include the Four Corners region, a sparsely populated area where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet that has been hit especially hard by recent rains.

Santorelli said the weekend rain was expected to bring both flash flooding and small-stream river flooding.

The forecast followed a night of rescues in the Phoenix area. The Phoenix Fire Department said in a post on X that crews rescued people from four vehicles on flooded streets Friday night.

In nearby Scottsdale, fire crews were rescuing a person in one vehicle on a flooded street when another vehicle carrying two people drove into the same waters and had to be rescued, a Scottsdale fire captain said in a Facebook post.

Fire Capt. Dave Folio said in a video posted on Facebook that just 2 inches (5 centimeters) of water can “sweep your vehicle off its wheels.” The vehicles involved were in 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 meters) of water, he said.

In Bullhead City, located on Arizona’s border with California, heavy rains on Friday left water, rocks and debris on streets across the city and closed parks, the city said in posts on Facebook.