Three people — two adults and a child — died early Wednesday when floodwater swept through the Navajo Nation near Newcomb, New Mexico. Flood watches and warnings covered large stretches of Arizona and New Mexico into Thursday as the same storm system moved through the Phoenix area, even as forecasters said the worst of the rain had begun to pass by early Thursday morning.
The Navajo Police Department’s Shiprock District responded to the scene near Newcomb, in San Juan County’s Four Corners region, around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. All three victims were pronounced dead at the scene; their names have not been released. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of those affected,” the department said in a statement. “We respectfully ask the community to honor the family’s privacy during this time.” The investigation is ongoing.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said the deaths were felt across the tribal community. “There are no words that can ease the pain of losing a loved one so suddenly, and our hearts are especially heavy knowing that three lives were lost,” he said, urging residents to “exercise extreme caution around flooded roadways, washes, and other areas affected by heavy rainfall.” Marcarlo Roanhorse, chairman of the Navajo Nation Commission on Emergency Management, echoed that warning separately: “We urge everyone to take flood warnings seriously. Never attempt to walk, swim, or drive through floodwaters, and keep children and family members away from washes, arroyos, and flooded crossings.”
The Navajo Nation Council and its Commission on Emergency Management have declared a nation-wide state of emergency in response to the flooding. No Arizona or New Mexico state-level emergency declaration, and no federal or FEMA action tied to this week’s storms, had been reported as of Thursday — the tribal declaration is, so far, the only one on the books.
Flooding also hit Chinle and Many Farms, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation, though no deaths were reported there. Residents along a stretch of Highway 191 were urged to evacuate as three rescue operations Nygren cited got underway; water levels began receding by Tuesday night.
Why now, and why this is unusual.
The moisture driving this week’s storms traces back to a disturbance that had been monitored for possible tropical development over the Gulf of California and has since moved onshore into Sonora, Mexico — it is no longer being tracked by the National Hurricane Center as an active system, according to the agency’s Wednesday-night Eastern Pacific outlook. The moisture it pumped into the Southwest continued feeding the storms even as the system itself moved inland. That moisture, combined with a heat dome parked over the central and eastern U.S., has acted like a wall, according to the FOX Forecast Center, locking tropical moisture in place over the region and feeding repeated rounds of heavy rain.
Tropical development over the Gulf of California itself is rare. The National Hurricane Center’s own record of the phenomenon goes back to 1949, and its history shows only one earlier documented case — Tropical Depression Nineteen-E in 2018, which the agency’s own report called “the first tropical cyclone to have formed over the Gulf of California” in that 77-year record. This week’s system, monitored for possible development in the same waters, is only the second known case of a disturbance being watched there for that reason, though it did not go on to form a tropical cyclone itself.
Phoenix area under a rare risk level.
The National Weather Service office in Phoenix placed most of Maricopa County and all of Gila County under a Moderate Flood Risk — a Level 3 of 4 designation the office’s own forecast discussion says is the first of its kind for the area “since 2022.” A Flash Flood Warning and a broader Flood Watch covered Maricopa, Pinal, Gila, and parts of La Paz and Yuma counties through Wednesday night, before the watch was narrowed early Thursday to areas east of Phoenix, including southern Gila County. Local outlets reported northern Scottsdale saw nearly 3 inches of rain.
Rescues followed. Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers pulled three stranded drivers from about two feet of standing water on Loop 101 at Princess Drive in Scottsdale. A Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office helicopter rescued two people in their 80s stuck in a wash along State Route 238. Mesa Fire and Medical crews responded to multiple calls of vehicles stuck in standing water; everyone got out safely. Phoenix Sky Harbor saw partial ground stops affecting flights headed to the airport before operations resumed. Several roads, including sections of Scottsdale Road, State Route 238 and Bush Highway, remained closed.
In New Mexico, a Flood Watch stayed in effect through Thursday night for areas along and west of the Continental Divide, including the Frijoles and Ruidoso burn-scar zones, with forecasters describing “a very active wet monsoon pattern” through the end of the week.
The National Weather Service said the low-pressure system driving the storm was lifting north and east out of the Phoenix area, with the immediate flash-flooding risk diminishing as it moved through. Forecasters expect drying to continue into Friday, with a more decisive drying trend — and near-normal conditions — taking hold by the weekend. Until skies fully clear, the office has continued to warn that rainfall rate, not just total accumulation, is the acute hazard: washes and low-water crossings can turn dangerous even in spots that look dry.
Readers near recent burn scars face extra risk: the Pocket Fire scar near Sedona and Oak Creek has drawn a renewed flash-flood warning as this week’s rain moves through, and the Sacaton and Hummingbird burn scars in New Mexico’s Catron County remain under an elevated flood risk as well. The Dragon Bravo Fire scar at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim — the site of a deadly flash flood on Aug. 29 — also remains at heightened risk.