The desert areas of Nevada and California are highly susceptible to flash flooding due to the poor drainage that is natural to desert types of landscapes, and Death Valley National Park is no exception. On Sunday, October 4 Death Valley was hit with severe flash flooding from a series of storm cells that hovered over the area, causing delays to visitors who were unable to safely pass the flooded areas. Bindlestiff Tours experienced a 2.5 hour delay on our Death Valley tour on that day due to the determination that it would be unsafe for our vehicles to pass. Weather conditions within Death Valley National Park were continually updated on the Facebook page of the park, providing ongoing information on road flooding and closures in real time as the events unfolded. Route 190 East and West were closed and re-opened to travel several times throughout the day, and Daylight Pass Road to Beatty suffered debris on the road that caused delays. Badwater Road was closed due to severe flash flooding, and was the scene where several videos were filmed by visitors and posted to Facebook showing the flash flooding. One such video can be seen here https://www.facebook.com/rixen.diana/videos/1065627243477438/ filmed by Diana Rixen. Updates on flash flooding in Death Valley National Park were brought to social media by visitors using the hashtag #DeathValleyFlashFlood and numerous updates on the situation were posted along with video under this hashtag. Flash flooding happens when a storm cell drops enough rain to begin motion instead of simply pooling. In areas that have poor natural drainage, the situation of water needing to flow toward lower areas causes large amounts of fast moving water to appear in areas that typically have no water in a matter of minutes. Flash flooding is quite dangerous as it is nearly impossible
The desert areas of Nevada and California are highly susceptible to flash flooding due to the poor drainage that is natural to desert types of