Arizona, 2019

Flash Flooding in Arizona, November 20 to 21, 2019

November 20 to 21, 2019 · NWS PSR · 3 events in 2 counties and zones

Deep moisture, some of it tropical in nature, interacted with a pair of upper level low pressure systems and led to the development of widespread rain and isolated thunderstorms across south-central Arizona during the evening hours on the 20th. Some of the heaviest rain, with measured storm total rainfall amounts generally around 2-4 inches, occurred over higher terrain east of Phoenix including…

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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
3

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 PSR wrote it up.

Deep moisture, some of it tropical in nature, interacted with a pair of upper level low pressure systems and led to the development of widespread rain and isolated thunderstorms across south-central Arizona during the evening hours on the 20th. Some of the heaviest rain, with measured storm total rainfall amounts generally around 2-4 inches, occurred over higher terrain east of Phoenix including the Woodbury burn scar. Banding and training of storms led to higher rainfall amounts in a shorter period of time, accelerating flash flood impacts across the burn scar. As an example of the flash flooding that occurred, at about 1930MST the public reported a rise of 15 feet along Campaign Creek about 10 miles to the southeast of Roosevelt. The heavy flow washed away an out-building in the area.

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 Phoenix, AZ wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Nov 20, 5:05 PM MST, 1 hour 45 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Nov 20, 5:05 PM MST, 1 hour 45 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Nov 20, 5:16 PM MST, 1 hour 34 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
Special weather statement, Nov 20, 5:17 PM MST, 1 hour 33 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
Local storm report, Nov 20, 5:23 PM MST, 1 hour 27 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
Special weather statement, Nov 20, 5:54 PM MST, 56 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
Special weather statement, Nov 20, 6:15 PM MST, 35 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
Local storm report, Nov 20, 6:44 PM MST, 6 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

The radar

The Phoenix radar (KIWA), 66 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 01:52 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

3 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flash Flood, Maricopa

When
November 20, 6:50 PM MST to 10:45 PM MST
Where
Maricopa County, 21.57 mi E of Tortilla Flat to 20.58 mi ESE of Tortilla Flat
Cause
Heavy Rain
Property damage
$25,000
Reported by
Public
Coordinates
33.494, -111.008

Deep moisture, some of it tropical in nature, interacted with a pair of low pressure systems to produce widespread moderate to heavy rain across the high terrain east of Phoenix during evening hours on November 20th. The heavy rain resulted in episodes of flash flooding that impacted the Woodbury burn scar area. According to a report from the public, at 1930MST flash flooding resulted in a rise of 15 feet along upper Campaign Creek, about 10 miles to the southeast of the town of Roosevelt. The heavy flow washed away an out-building in the area. There were no reports of injuries due to the flash flooding, fortunately.

Flash Flood, Maricopa

When
November 20, 6:50 PM MST to 10:45 PM MST
Where
Maricopa County, 10.26 mi E of Tortilla Flat to 9.7 mi SSE of Tortilla Flat
Cause
Heavy Rain
Property damage
$5,000
Reported by
Public
Coordinates
33.502, -111.205

Deep moisture, some of it tropical in nature, interacted with a pair of low pressure systems to produce locally heavy rain across the high terrain east of Phoenix during the evening hours on November 20th. The heavy rain resulted in episodes of flash flooding that impacted the Woodbury burn scar and areas near the scar. At about 2000MST, a public report was received that described a rapid rise of water and out of the bank flooding along Lewis and Pranty Creek below the Woodbury fire's burn scar. A bit later, at 2025MST, a mesonet gage on Fish Creek located 5 miles east of Tortilla Flat reported a rapid rise of over 4 feet. The USGS stream gage was located below the Woodbury fire burn scar. Fortunately there were no reports of injuries due to the flash flooding.

Flash Flood, Gila

When
November 20, 7:00 PM MST to November 21, 1:00 AM MST
Where
Gila County, 4.71 mi ESE of Roosevelt Grpvn Arpt to 4.22 mi SE of Roosevelt Grpvn Arpt
Cause
Heavy Rain
Property damage
$20,000
Reported by
Emergency Manager
Coordinates
33.608, -110.973

Scattered to numerous showers, along with embedded thunderstorms, developed to the east of Phoenix during the late afternoon and evening hours on November 20th. Rainfall was heavy at times with peak rain rates over 1 inch per hour, and this led to some flash flooding that affected the far eastern portion of Maricopa County as well as Apache Junction. Flash flooding even occurred over portions of the Woodbury burn scar area. According to a local emergency manager, flood waters from an engorged Campaign Creek flowed into and flooded a home along Ash Street in the Roosevelt Estates, located about 8 miles southeast of Roosevelt. Water was seen to be upwards of 9 inches along the sides of the house, and ash from the Woodbury burn scar area was present in the floodwaters. Fortunately there were no reports of injuries.

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 2019Every state in 2019This day in weather historyWarnings in Arizona, November 2019

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 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 859862, 859863, 863326.