Heavy rain will bring risk of flash flooding to parts of the southwestern United States

Heavy rain beginning Saturday evening is expected to bring a threat of flash flooding. areas already saturated of the southwestern United States through Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

Up to 10 centimeters of rain could fall in the region, where a number of weather systems brought a mortal autumn of torrential rains. Several people were rescued from floodwaters Friday in Arizona and Nevada.

“It won’t take a lot of precipitation to have an impact in some of these places, just because of how saturated they are,” said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist at the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

The National Weather Service has issued flood warnings for almost all of Arizona and parts of southern Utah, southwest Colorado and western New Mexico, in addition to part of southern Nevada. Those watches include the Four Corners region, a sparsely populated area where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet, which has been particularly hard hit. by recent rains.

Santorelli said this weekend’s rains are expected to cause both flash flooding and flooding of small streams.

The Phoenix Fire Department said in a post on

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

Crews from Henderson, Nevada, performed three swift-water rescues during a downpour in the city just outside Las Vegas Friday afternoon, a city spokesperson told media. One person was rescued from the top of their vehicle after it became stuck in floodwaters, two people were rescued from a vehicle swept off the roadway by floodwaters, and a person washing themselves was rescued but later went into cardiac arrest and died in hospital.

In western Arizona, heavy rain Friday in Bullhead City left water, rocks and debris on city streets and closed parks, the city said in Facebook posts.