Arizona Congressman Tom O'Halleran traveled toFlagstaff on Wednesday, where recent floods had devastated the city. I went to see the area.
He never thought he would be able to see the problem up close and personal.
A group of congressmen, local flood flood managers, and federal officials were driving around flood-hit areas when a storm struck and the group I had to look for higher ground. ,Republic of Arizona reported.
As they were driving, they avoided being caught in the oncoming water, which rolled down the road with them, the newspaper said.
"They had to experience it," local flood manager Lucinda Andreani told Republic. "It was a very dramatic experience for all of them."
The area around Flagstaff repeatedly flooded this summer as annual monsoon rains hit the southwestern United States. .
These rains, however, have been turned into more severe flooding by recent wildfires in the region. After a wildfire scorches a landscape, there is no morevegetation to disperse or absorb rain.
Fires can also leave layers of soil that do not absorb much water. So when heavy rain hits a burn scar, it can quickly turn into a flash flood.
At the beginning of the summer, both pipeline and tunnel fires burned north of Flagstaff. The pipeline fire covered 41 square miles (107 square kilometers) just north of the city, flooding the downhill area of the burn scar this summer.
Flooding hazards from wildfire scars can last for years. Parts of the Flagstaff neighborhood, which has gone downhill from the 2019 museum fire, were also flooded this year.
Around 1,500 homes are at risk in areas where flooding resurfaced on Wednesday, the Republic reported.
At least 31 Flagstaff homes damaged by floods this year, Arizona families report . According to the Arizona Daily Sun, the city's water supply has also been damaged by flooding from the pipeline fire scars.
The wet season in the southwest typically lasts from mid-June to mid-September, and flash floods are frequent in the region's lowlands, especially in the canyons.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) has issued flood warnings for much of Arizona and New Mexico as the rain continues. In Flagstaff, the NWS warned that storms and flash floods could continue into next week, with 1 to 2 inches of precipitation per hour possible.
But as theclimate crisisgrows, so too will the risk of flash floods.
For one thing, the risk of wildfires is increasing, especially in the West. These rains bring in tons of water, but much of the western United States is in the midst of a severe drought.
According to the US Government Drought Monitor,Arizona is currently experiencing drier-than-normal conditions, with one-third ofstates experiencing a "severe drought." facing.
The entire Southwest is also in the midst of a multi-decade "great drought", the driest 20 years in at least 1,200 years,accelerated by the climate crisis} .
As the climate crisis worsens, droughts are likely to worsen in the southwestern United States. A flood occurs on the burnt land.
But flash floods can also increase for other reasons. A recent paper found that in warmer climates, storms dump more water into areas in a short period of time, leading to a much higher risk of flash floods.
