Heavy Rain — Cochise, Arizona

2014-03-01 · near Sunnyside, Cochise, Arizona

Event narrative

Heavy rain was determined to be the cause of a 1-vehicle accident involving two women at Kilometer 15 on 1-19 in Rio Rico. The car drifted to the left into the center median at approximately 1215 MST and struck a tree. One woman was killed and the other was seriously injured.

Wider weather episode

A winter storm impacted Southern Arizona on the first day of March. A strong low pressure system off the California coast opened up and dropped through the base of the trough over the southwest U.S. Interaction of this system with an atmospheric river from the Pacific helped push precipitable water values above the 99th percentile for March. Strong winds along the backside of a line of strong showers caused some wind damage, while the second round of rainfall caused flash flooding in Pima and Santa Cruz Counties. The mountain ranges north and east of Tucson received several inches of snow above 7000 feet.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (31.4497, -110.9714)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 508174. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.