Escalante river, flash flood, Oct 22-2026

[Titans]

We had a ton of rain in Escalante since Tuesday evening. Torrential rain many times.
Unsurprisingly it looks like the river flashed, including 1/2 hr ago.

Rick just squeezed a run in and took this photo (an hour ago) - from Posey Lake rd crossing the Escalante river:

 

[Titans]

We drove down to the Escalante river TH area, about an hour ago, and whoa!
Wall to wall with water, lots of debris, high flow, entire logs floating by:

















30 day gage data


1yr gage data

 

[John Morrow]

Holy cow that's incredible!

 

[Titans]

Holy cow that's incredible!

Yes, surreal to watch! And it looked exactly like this end of September too, I heard from a local (and saw a similar movie). So it happened twice in the last month. Wild….

 

[Janice]

I cannot believe how much water was there. But the cottonwoods look spectacular!

 

[SteveR]

Nice fall colors, though!

 

[b.stark]

I got to see the flooding the same day, here are two pictures from the Highway 12 bridge taken about 24 hours apart.

 

[John Morrow]

I am sure if I researched more persistently I might find better and more accurate data on rainfall amounts in southern UT. But this is an easy and quick way to get a sense of what has been happening. Weather Underground has data from weather stations that does not require a log in. Plus, they have an easy convenient tab for "Calendar" that records actual rainfall amounts over each 24 hour period. Unfortunately there are only two that have detailed precip amounts:
Type in any town/city in the area and the calendar defaults to Bryce and Moab Airports. Links to the Calendar view:
This month is incredible.

https://www.wunderground.com/calendar/us/ut/escalante/KBCE
(note: I typed in Escalante, UT but calendar view reverts to Bryce.) 2.6 inches on 10/22!

Moab, UT Weather Calendar | Weather Underground

Moab Weather Forecasts. Weather Underground provides local & long-range weather forecasts, weather reports, maps & tropical weather conditions for the Moab area.

www.wunderground.com

 

[Bob]

Saw a news blip....that the San Juan was running at 25,000 cfs above the Animas. The Animas is at about 25,000 cfs. Record highs since 1910, about. Should fill Lake Powell a bit....

 

[mike_offerman]

The San Juan in Pagosa Springs was at it's highest level since 1911. This is the hot springs in town, 3' higher than the big floods we had last year.