Name: Flash Flood in Arizona, August 14, 2008
Start: 2008-08-14T14:51
End: 2008-08-14T15:45
Location: Arizona

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. 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

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $10,000
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 happened

The episode as NWS TWC wrote it up.

Heavy rainfall across Cochise County resulted in areas of flash flooding.

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 Tucson, AZ wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 14, 2:38 PM MST, 13 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 14, 2:38 PM MST, 13 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TUCSON AZ
238 PM MST THU AUG 14 2008

.SYNOPSIS...SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS...SOME WITH HEAVY RAIN...WILL BE
AROUND TONIGHT AND FRIDAY BEFORE GRADUALLY BECOMING MORE ISOLATED
THIS WEEKEND INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK AS SOMEWHAT DRIER AIR MOVES INTO
SOUTHEAST ARIZONA. HIGH TEMPERATURES WILL BE NEAR NORMAL THROUGH
EARLY NEXT WEEK.

&&

.DISCUSSION...COMPLEX WEATHER SITUATION ACROSS THE AREA THIS
AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. LAST NIGHTS CONVECTIVE ACTIVITY HAS
STABILIZED MOST OF PIMA AND PINAL COUNTIES WITH VISIBLE IMAGERY THIS
AFTERNOON SHOWING A VERY WEAK CYCLONIC CIRCULATION JUST NORTH OF
TUCSON. TUCSON EARLY MORNING SOUNDING WAS WORKED OVER FROM LAST
NIGHTS ACTIVITY AND THE LATE MORNING SPECIAL RELEASE WAS STILL
STABLE WITH SOME ROOM TO BREAK THE MID LAYER CAP. PRETTY IMPRESSIVE
STORMS THIS AFTERNOON ALONG THE INTERNATIONAL BORDER OF COCHISE
COUNTY ASSOCIATED WITH INVERTED TROF. THESE STORMS HAVE BEEN HAILERS
AND DUMPERS WHILE MOVING SLOWLY TO THE NE. FURTHER NORTH...STORMS
ALSO LOOK IMPRESSIVE OVER THE EASTERN MOGOLLON RIM AND WHITE
MOUNTAINS AND THEY ARE SLOWLY MOVING TO THE SOUTHWEST. BIG QUESTIONS
FOR TONIGHT ARE 1) WILL STORMS CONTINUE TO MARCH SOUTHWEST OFF THE
RIM INTO LAST NIGHTS RAIN COOLED AREAS THAT HAVE HAD SUN THIS
AFTERNOON TO BUILD UP CAPE? AND 2) DO WE END UP WITH A MERGING
COMPLEX EAST OF TUCSON AND THEN NEW STORMS POSSIBLY MOVING WEST?
THUS THE COMPLEXITY OF THE FORECAST FOR TONIGHT. I HAVE UPPED POPS
FOR TONIGHT AND ADDED HEAVY SHOWERS/RAIN WORDING TO THE FORECAST.

FRIDAY FORECAST IS REALLY UP IN THE AIR AND HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON WHAT
HAPPENS TONIGHT. CANT SEE ANOTHER UP DAY IF THERE IS ANOTHER ONE
TONIGHT. BUT THEN AGAIN WE MAY START TO GET MORE OF AN INFLUENCE
FROM THE UPPER LOW...THAT HAS BEEN IN SOUTHERN SASKATCHEWAN OVER THE
PAST TWO DAYS...AND NOW MOVING SOUTH THROUGH EASTERN MONTANA AND
WILL BE OVER SOUTHWEST WYOMING FRIDAY AFTERNOON. SO WILL GO WITH A
LOW END MONSOON FORECAST FOR FRIDAY.

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY WILL SEE A GRADUAL DECREASE IN MOISTURE AS SOME
DRIER AIR WORKS IN FROM THE NORTH ASSOCIATED WITH THE UPPER LOW
MEANDERING OVER COLORADO. PIECES OF ENERGY...WHICH WILL BE TOUGH TO
TIME...WILL ROTATE AROUND THIS LOW THIS WEEKEND AND WORK WITH
MOISTURE OVER THE AREA. IN SOME RESPECTS IT MAY LOOK LIKE LATE JULY
2006 BUT IN THAT TIME PERIOD...THE CLOSED LOW WAS QUASI-STATIONARY
IN NW NEW MEXICO...NOT COLORADO. SO EVEN THOUGH WE ARE FORECASTING A
BIT OF A DOWN TURN THIS WEEKEND...STILL COULD SEE SOME ISOLATED
SEVERE WEATHER.

NEXT WEEKS FORECAST IS HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON WHAT OCCURS IN THE
ATLANTIC AND THE EASTERN HALF OF THE CONUS. THE WEEKEND UPPER LOW IN
COLORADO IS FORECAST TO MOVE SLOWLY INTO THE SOUTHERN PLAINS...WHILE
A POTENTIAL TROPICAL SYSTEM HITS SOMEWHERE IN THE SOUTHEAST CONUS.
DEPENDING ON HOW STRONG THIS SYSTEM IS...IT COULD HOLD BACK THE
UPPER LOW FURTHER WEST WHILE THE UPPER RIDGE AMPLIFIES TO OUR WEST.
FOR NOW WILL GO WITH A LOW END MONSOON FORECAST...MAINLY TARGETING
THE MOUNTAINS WITH HIGHER POPS.

HIGH TEMPERATURES FRIDAY WILL BE IN RECOVERY MODE...LIKELY BELOW
NORMAL AND THEN A GRADUAL WARMUP OVER THE WEEKEND WITH VALUES THIS
WEEKEND AND NEXT WEEK AT OR SLIGHTLY ABOVE SEASONAL NORMALS.

&&

.AVIATION...SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY WILL
CONTINUE TO DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING BEFORE ENDING AFTER
MIDNIGHT. LIGHT DIURNALLY DRIVEN WINDS OF 5-15 KTS EXPECTED...EXCEPT
NEAR THUNDERSTORMS. AT THIS TIME EXPECTING LESS ACTIVITY FRIDAY.
AVIATION DISCUSSION NOT UPDATED FOR TAF AMENDMENTS.

&&

.TWC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE.

WEATHER.GOV/TUCSON

In the hours before

Local storm report, Aug 14, 1:38 PM MST, 1 hour 13 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TUCSON AZ
138 PM MST THU AUG 14 2008

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0130 PM     HAIL             2 E CORONADO NATIONAL M 31.35N 110.21W
08/14/2008  M0.50 INCH       COCHISE            AZ   TRAINED SPOTTER

            TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED LARGE QUANTITIES OF MARBLE SIZE
            HAIL

&&

BTURNER

The radar

The Tucson radar (KEMX), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:49 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flash Flood, Cochise

When: August 14, 2:51 PM MST to 3:45 PM MST
Where: Cochise County, 5.35 mi W of Hereford to 3.33 mi WSW of Palominas
Cause: Heavy Rain
Property damage: $10,000
Reported by: Law Enforcement
Coordinates: 31.440, -110.190

Several roads were flooded in the Bisbee and Hereford area due to heavy rainfall. In addition tons of gravel, rock and debris from the slopes of Zacatecas Canyon turned Brewery Gulf in Bisbee into a river. Trained spotters in Hereford reported two inches of rain in 45 minutes and 2.25 inches of rain in 75 minutes.

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 2008 Every state in 2008 This day in weather history Warnings in Arizona, August 2008

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: 114461.