Deadly flooding in Grand Canyon leaves 15 missing. Extreme weather fueled deluge

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Set us as preferred Epic flooding in the Grand Canyon that left at least two dead and more than a dozen missing was fueled in part by extreme weather, including the Southwest’s long-term drought, unusually hot ocean temperatures and air from El Niño, forecasters said.Flash flooding is common in northern Arizona, but experts say the amount of rain in the Grand Canyon this weekend was unusually high.Floodwater ripped through the popular recreational area, and officials were still searching for people who remained unaccounted for.Chad Merrill, senior meteorologist and a long-range forecaster with AccuWeather, said the El Niño climate pattern has caused unusually warm sea-surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific, increasing the moisture in the atmosphere that strengthened the Southwest monsoon.The unusually warm waters between Southern California and Hawaii that have contributed to a higher dew point and brought on the muggy conditions in Los Angeles, are also delivering additional boosts in moisture and energy to those monsoon storms, he said.The Grand Canyon’s typography also exacerbated the storm.“At 7,000 feet on the South Rim [of the national park], we basically have a tremendous amount of uplift that causes convective storms, also known as hot air storms, [which produce] a massive amount of rainfall,” said Randy Cerveny, a meteorologist with Arizona State University.“We get these convective thunderstorms many times during the course of the summer, but not of this kind of intensity,” he added.Merrill said a persistent drought, which has prompted water restrictions at the Grand Canyon, allowed the heavy rainfall to run off quickly rather than get absorbed by the ground.

Additionally, the heat dome in the region has been moving away eastward, allowing for the moisture to build up in the atmosphere.�...