I got am email from a friend that lives in Phoenix. That city regularly gets tropical storms and they have a drainage system that you have to see to believe - they look like large dry riverbeds 1/2 mile across. They were never even mentioned as endangered by Hilary except on the local TV here.

"Don't listen to the Weather Channel anymore. They blow everything out of proportion. They were predicting catastrophic, life threatening rain and flooding from hurricane Hilary last weekend. They even said that Southern California would receive a years worth of rain in just ONE DAY.

I looked it up:
The city of Los Angeles gets 14 inches of rain per year. Hilary dropped only 2.1 inches of rain.

The city of San Diego gets just under 12 inches of rain per year. Hilary dropped 1/2 inch of rain.

The Weather Channel has no credibility...

Mike

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2023/08/21/phoenix-leaders-prepared-for-hurricane-hilary-but-it-was-underwhelming/70644822007/ "

Tom Kunich wrote:
> I got am email from a friend that lives in Phoenix. That city
> regularly gets tropical storms and they have a drainage system that
> you have to see to believe - they look like large dry riverbeds 1/2
> mile across. They were never even mentioned as endangered by Hilary
> except on the local TV here.

Phoenix didn't get much more than some extra cloudiness, and a little
bit of wind. Actually got more rain on Monday from a standard monsoon
storm.

Drainage systems vary, depending on what part of town, and the physical
geography. Indian Bend Wash, which runs the length of Scottsdale (north
to south) is the narrowest, and most prone to flooding. A lot of
engineering work that has gone in there.

The biggest is actually the Salt River bed. Above Mesa, all the
incoming water is diverted into the canal system, which provides a lot
of the local water supply. The only time the river runs is when
reservoirs upstream are full enough that they let out water to allow for
more runoff. That actually happened earlier this spring.

In front of Tempe, there is a 2-mile stretch of the river that has been
re-flooded as Tempe Town Lake. A lot of high-rise development happening
next to the lake. The lake itself is sufficient that there is serious
rowing activity there, including a crew program at Arizona State University.

The rest of the riverbed (above and below the lake) is dry, and in
several places, major roads cross the dry riverbed, and are closed on
the occasions that the riverbed floods. With drought, this was the
first year in a decade or so that there was enough water to close those
crossings.

Smith

On Wednesday, August 23, 2023 at 9:26:50 AM UTC-7, NFN Smith wrote:
> Tom Kunich wrote:
> > I got am email from a friend that lives in Phoenix. That city
> > regularly gets tropical storms and they have a drainage system that
> > you have to see to believe - they look like large dry riverbeds 1/2
> > mile across. They were never even mentioned as endangered by Hilary
> > except on the local TV here.
> Phoenix didn't get much more than some extra cloudiness, and a little
> bit of wind. Actually got more rain on Monday from a standard monsoon
> storm.
>
> Drainage systems vary, depending on what part of town, and the physical
> geography. Indian Bend Wash, which runs the length of Scottsdale (north
> to south) is the narrowest, and most prone to flooding. A lot of
> engineering work that has gone in there.
>
> The biggest is actually the Salt River bed. Above Mesa, all the
> incoming water is diverted into the canal system, which provides a lot
> of the local water supply. The only time the river runs is when
> reservoirs upstream are full enough that they let out water to allow for
> more runoff. That actually happened earlier this spring.
>
> In front of Tempe, there is a 2-mile stretch of the river that has been
> re-flooded as Tempe Town Lake. A lot of high-rise development happening
> next to the lake. The lake itself is sufficient that there is serious
> rowing activity there, including a crew program at Arizona State University.
>
> The rest of the riverbed (above and below the lake) is dry, and in
> several places, major roads cross the dry riverbed, and are closed on
> the occasions that the riverbed floods. With drought, this was the
> first year in a decade or so that there was enough water to close those
> crossings.
>
> Smith
My friend lives in Peoria and that is where I saw that super wide drainage ditch. The bike trail went across it.

Tom Kunich wrote:
> My friend lives in Peoria and that is where I saw that super wide
> drainage ditch. The bike trail went across it.

Right. I think I've seen that, but I don't really know the west side.

Smith