Flood — Navajo, Arizona

2023-03-22 to 2023-03-24 · near West Winslow, Navajo, Arizona

Event narrative

Rain and rain on snow caused the The Little Colorado River in Navajo County to reach flood stage in the evening of March 22. The river gauge at Holbrook showed a sharp rise around 800 PM. The river dropped back down at that location around 800 PM on March 24. The river gauge at Winslow showed a sharp rise around 1000 PM on March 23 and dropped back down around 1100 AM on March 24. The Bird Springs Chapter House (downstream of Winslow) poste a video that showed flooding over Navajo Route 71 (impassable) at 1000 AM on March 24.

Wider weather episode

The first in a series of disturbances moved across Arizona from March 20 to 21. This caused widespread snow showers to develop. The heaviest snow was over the higher terrain in upslope areas. This storm also delivered strong and damaging winds. The higher snow levels caused significant melting of lower elevation snow and flooding. The flooding took several days to flow down major rivers in northern Arizona.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.1900, -110.7400)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1097656. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.