Even on uneven surfaces at high elevation, the right conditions can yield potentially dangerous flash flooding. Here, a heavy and slow-moving thunderstorm with rain and hail cores training on the back side unleashed a torrent through just a few square miles of uphill drainage and across the highway east of town. Dry washes became very wet washes in quick order. “Hail bergs”, made of loose blocks of accumulated and drifted hailstones, floated along in the flood until being piled up against the roadbed at left. The flood also was short-lived, but regardless, folks had to give this 15-20 minutes to drain off before crossing. When a fast-moving and muddy flood obviously overwhelms a road like this, there’s no way to know if the road surface has been compromised out in the unseen depths. Between that and the power of moving water, any attempts to cross this, on car or foot, would be monumentally foolhardy.
4 E Las Vegas NM (12 Aug 17) Looking ESE
35.5952, -105.1394Flash Flood with “Hail Bergs”
Even on uneven surfaces at high elevation, the right conditions can yield potentially dangerous flash flooding. Here, a heavy and slow-moving thunderstorm with rain and hail cores training on the back side unleashed a torrent through just a few square miles of uphill drainage and across the highway east of town. Dry washes became very wet washes in quick order. “Hail bergs”, made of loose blocks of accumulated and drifted hailstones, floated along in the flood until being piled up against the roadbed at left. The flood also was short-lived, but regardless, folks had to give this 15-20 minutes to drain off before crossing. When a fast-moving and muddy flood obviously overwhelms a road like this, there’s no way to know if the road surface has been compromised out in the unseen depths. Between that and the power of moving water, any attempts to cross this, on car or foot, would be monumentally foolhardy.
4 E Las Vegas NM (12 Aug 17) Looking ESE
35.5952, -105.1394