Water flows through typically dry desert rivers by just one method most of the time: flash flooding. So it was here, as storms rolled westward off the Sacramento Mountains and onto the desert floor of the Tularosa Valley, ultimately to wetten the northern parts of the famous White Sands dune field. In the distance at right was the core of the multicell thunderstorm that caused this flooding, as it moved both downhill and downstream. The field of white gypsum sands can’t be seen directly from here, but lies at distant left. Its reflection slightly brightened the bottom of the anvil and virga of the storm at upper left.
1 SSE Three Rivers NM (6 Jul 21) Looking WSW
33.3033, -106.0735