Flash foods seem to appear as a sudden wall of water and debris several feet deep and across a whole currently dry channel at once.
What’s the mechanism for this to happen? I would expect even a sudden heavy rainstorm to form a small stream that builds up over time.
In: Physics
In arizona where flash floods are fairly common, its mostly because the ground is packed, dry, rocky and doesn’t have much vegetation so it does a very poor job of absorbing water when there is a significant rain. The water just rushes along the ground toward low points and rapidly accumulates in dried creek beds and ditches (or anywhere low), and very quickly forms a ‘flash flood’.
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