Flash Flood in Kern County, California

A thunderstorm measured at 69 dBz moved from southwest to northeast up the El Paso Mountains in East Kern County on the evening of Wednesday, Sept 3rd. Reports indicated that 4.50" of rain fell from this storm in a little over an hour's time. The resulting flash flood through Red Rock Canyon State Park brought 28,000 CFS down through the park, across State Highway 14 and the Redrock-Randsburg Road, and on into Koehn Dry Lake. Nearly 100 motorists were stranded by the flooding with 4 cars swept into the water. Reports indicated that a 12-foot wall of water swept over Highway 14 at 7:10 PM PDT and subsequently over Redrock-Randsburg Road at 7:17 PM PDT. The number of injuries was estimated based on initial reports...no fatalities.

Monsoonal moisture over the Southwest United States by the late afternoon/early evening of Wednesday, September 3rd, supported thunderstorm activity over the desert portions of Kern County and the northern Kern County Mountains. One particularly large cell produced heavy rain reaching 4.50 inches in a little over an hour and resulted in 28,000 CFS of flash flood flow down Red Rock Creek through Red Rock Canyon State Park damaging several bridges along State Highway 14. While not reaching severe wind threshold levels...the Cantil thunderstorm produced a gusty front of 40 knots over the California City Airport 12 miles away at 17:30 PST. No damage was reported. An additional gust front from the Mojave area thunderstorm produced a gust front of 42 knots over the Mojave Airport at 18:00 PST. Again, no damage was reported from this cell due to its winds.