Name: Flash Flood in Arizona, September 15, 2001
Start: 2001-09-15T15:00
End: 2001-09-15T18:30
Location: Arizona

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Flagstaff, AZ wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 15, 2:30 PM MST, 30 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 15, 2:30 PM MST, 30 minutes before

NORTHERN ARIZONA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FLAGSTAFF AZ
949 AM MST SAT SEP 15 2001

.SYNOPSIS...ABUNDANT SUBTROPICAL MOISTURE ACROSS THE REGION WILL
BRING ANOTHER ROUND OF THUNDERSTORMS TO THE REGION TODAY. SOME OF
THE STORMS WILL PRODUCE HEAVY RAINFALL...ESPECIALLY OVER CENTRAL
ARIZONA. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL RETURN SUNDAY
AND MONDAY. MUCH DRIER WESTERLY FLOW WILL TAKE HOLD BY TUESDAY...
WITH DRY AND WARM CONDITIONS EXPECTED THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEK.

.DISCUSSION...GOOD FORECAST FROM THE EARLY MORNING PACKAGE. MAIN
HIGHLIGHTS .4 INCH PRECIP WATER ALONG THE UTAH AND ARIZONA BORDER
INCREASING TO AROUND AND INCH SOUTHERN YAVAPAI AND NORTHERN GILA
COUNTIES. SOUNDING FROM THE MESO ETA SHOWING INVERTED V SOUNDINGS TO
THE NORTH...DYNAMIC FORCING (DIVQ AND OMEGA) WEAK SO THUNDERSTORMS
ROUGHLY NORTH OF I-40 WILL HAVE THE POTENTIAL OF PRODUCING SOME
STRONG GUSTY WIND AND SMALL HAIL. TO THE SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 40
MOISTURE IS DEEPER...MESO ETA SOUNDINGS SUGGEST STEEPER LAPSE
RATES...FLOW IS WEAK AS WELL AS THE DYNAMIC FORCING DOWN IN THE
NOISE LEVEL...SO THE STORMS ALONG AND SOUTH OF I-40 WILL BE
STRONG PULSE AND TERRAIN DRIVEN...WITH THE MAIN THREAT...LOCALIZED
HEAVY RAINFALL.

CLEMMONS
.FGZ...NONE.

The radar

The Flagstaff radar (KFSX), 124 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:58 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flash Flood, Yavapai

When: September 15, 3:00 PM MST to 6:30 PM MST
Where: Yavapai County, Chino Vly
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 34.600, -112.554 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

A thunderstorm produced torrential rain and hail five miles west of Chino Valley. Two to four inches of rain fell during this storm which started around 300 PM. Some people experienced flooding in their homes. A flooding wash pushed away heavy horse troughs and railroad ties. Two culverts under Williamson Valley Road became clogged with debris and caused the hail to stack up. The hail was as deep as eight feet and covered an area the size of a football field or larger. The hail was several inches deep in yards along Dome Road. The swath of hail was less than a mile wide. County road crews arrived the next day to clear the roads and made piles of hail ten feet tall.

What these are

Flash Flood: Flooding that begins within six hours of the rain that causes it, or of a dam or levee failure or ice jam release, often with deadly speed.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Arizona in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Arizona, September 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5267797.