On Friday, Death Valley National Park measured 1.46 inches of rainfall at Furnace Creek, about three-fourths of an entire year’s worth of rain for the park.
Traveling with his corgi, Aspen, he drove to Badwater Road near Highway 190 and waited it out in his car there. “Different areas of the park flooded at different times. You could get clear of one area and another wash would be running and you would have to wait 15 minutes,” he said. Summer storms in Death Valley are usually more localized, closing a road or two and maybe causing an alluvial fan to flash flood, Jurado said, calling Friday’s downpour “exceptionally rare.” The last time the park saw rain this widespread was in 2015, when, triggering a 1,000-year flood event that battered historic structures. Scotty’s Castle, a Spanish-style mansion that offered guided tours, was severely damaged and has been closed to the public ever since.
Drought