Middle Escalante Deluge (neon/choprock)

[shaggy125]

I like the Fremont before and during picture.

Yea, those kids standing on the bank are history by now I'm sure!

[stefan]

i added a new figure to my site, thought i'd also post it here:
i've doctored it a little from the powell wata database

it rained hard from 10/5-6 and was still draining on the 9th, when it started to rain again ...

[hank moon]

great TR Stefan,
i got a camera question, what camera are u using?
and how many of those shots have been Iphoto enhanced?
you got some great color saturation, just want to know how much of it is the mac...lol

Saturated rock = saturated color!

[stefan]

UPDATE:


so recently i have modified my report on the escalante flood nat smale and i experienced last october during the wild storm that blanketed southern utah. although the old link points to the new location,

the new link to the page is:
Middle Escalante Deluge

__________________

however!! there is a great new addition to the page i believe many will be interested in seeing. the gracious Randi Poer was so very kind and took a number of photos from similar vantage points on her recent trip to neon/chop. i've placed our photos side-by-side for comparison. they are relatively small so most screens will display them, however, if you CLICK on the IMAGE PAIR, they will ZOOM out and you can see more detail. the comparisons are wild.

bottom of page:
Day of the Flood


i am very grateful for the effort she made to take these photos. thank you Randi.

enjoy ...


stefan

[Iceaxe]

Love those side-by-sides. Nice Job of getting them Randi.

[marc olivares]

WOW

those shots of Randi's really give you some perspective on how much water was flowing during that storm.

Great job Randi...

[stefan]

WOW

those shots of Randi's really give you some perspective on how much water was flowing during that storm.

Great job Randi...

yup!

it was great too that she took high resolution images as they allowed me to zoom in and crop and still have reasonable resolution left over, as in the camp scene and the one with the arrows.

i only wish my originals were high resolution. while my camera had a wonderful lens it was only 3.3 MP

EDIT: camp not theirs.

[Scott Card]

Nice job Randi and Stefan. Every time I see the photos and now the side by side shots I am impressed.

[tanya]

Great photos!

[Randi]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments on the photos, but it was nothing more than chance that I happened to be the one who took them!

I joined this site (recently) - mentioned I was going to be in the Escalante area - and Stefan got this crazy idea to see if I'd be interested in taking a few "before" the flood photos to compliment his site.

HE did all the work!

He pin pointed locations on the topo, supplied his photos to work from, cropped and adjusted the photos I took, etc.
All I did was meander off trail for a very short period of time and snap off a few photos.

I hadn't been to this blog-spot on this site before tonight and the "flood" info and photos are incredible!

I just LOVE the addition of ice and water to any scenery. It's so fascinating to see the elements at work...carving and creating...devastating and then renewing the landscape. When you see the world through this type of lens it's like viewing the artist at work rather than just the painting the artist has produced!
Know what I mean?

GREAT stuff!!!!

~Randi

[stefan]

well, it was a little more than just chance

and i certainly think she did all the hard work

[Iceaxe]

I just LOVE the addition of ice and water to any scenery.

I don't know who this Water guy is.... But I certainly agree Ice will enhance any photo.

[tanya]

I just LOVE the addition of ice and water to any scenery.

I don't know who this Water guy is.... But I certainly agree Ice will enhance any photo.

[stefan]

Flash Flood Warnings and the National Weather Service.


FLASH FLOOD WATCH - OCT. 4 2006
when i returned from the trip to escalante i had correspondence with Brian McInerney who is a hydrologist and flood forecaster at the National Weather Service. they watched a wide, dense finger of rainfall making its way up through arizona towards Southern Utah, it became clear from their observations and agreement with models that the storm was going to hit southern utah pretty hard. So he issued a flash flood watch on wednesday for thursday thru friday on the National Weather Service page and radio broadcast. before issuing the watch, he proceeded to call the parks and monuments of utah to inform them of the magnitude of the storm and likely flooding. they were then able to affect access, close scenic drives, and inform travelers, hikers, etc. before the storm hit.

HOWEVER, he was concerned that they were not able to inform some of the folks who needed the information most. the NWS needs more exposure and folks need to be more receptive.

out timing was uncanny as we arrived at the trailhead roughly at the time when he issued the warning. i have added the initial flash flood watch at the bottom of the flood page, under the comparisons, if you're interested:
escalante flood



NEW FLASH FLOOD WEBSITE (NWS)
recently he told me, as well as a number of others, that he's working on establishing a "one-stop-shop" flash flood warning page at the national weather service. this should be INVALUABLE for canyoneering. this new page will be up and running online starting mid-June, just before the regular flash flood season begins. stay tuned for information on it around that time.


CURRENT FLASH FLOOD WEBSITE (NWS)
currently, flash flood warnings are being issued twice daily, for specific areas, 24-36 hours prior to the event. these warnings are issued by the National Weather Service at the following link
flash flood potential - national weather service


as far as exposure for the NWS warnings and getting information to canyoneers, my suggestion to him was that folks with canyoneering webpages place a link to the flash flood warning webpage prominently on a page that many canyoneers frequent. though i am likely not the only one who suggested this to him, i sent him a list of canyoneering page links. but i thought it would be appropriate to make the suggestion to folks here, as there are many people with canyoneering/hiking pages who read/post here.


Brian McInerney and the National Weather Service are very eager to do their best to improve their flash flood watchs/warnings and their exposure to the general public, especially to those who can benefit most from them. but it would seem that it's through word of mouth, posting on websites/forums, and other means that the exposure effectively gets widened.

i have put some of this information on my escalante flood page, and will have the new flash flood link there. also i have placed a flash flood link on the Canyoneering Links Sticky ... right at the top.


i hope this information helps,

[stefan]

it was a year ago today nat and i left on this trip, arriving at the trailhead just as the flash flood watch was going public.

thought i'd give it a bump. amazing how time flies.


and in case one has missed it, the National Weather Service has a new flash flood page

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/slc/flashflood/

which can ALWAYS be found in the canyoneering links sticky page at the top of the canyoneering section.

[stefan]

here is link to an animated gif image of a sequence of doppler radar images for sw utah/nw arizona spanning from 5:56 pm on 10.5.2006 through 5:54 pm on 10.6.2006. the time is in the upper right (MDT).

http://tinyurl.com/ll97wg

the animated gif plays rather fast in a webbrowser. you can download it and play it in quicktime (or some other media viewer) and move from frame to frame at your leisure.

the last frame of this sequence is during the time we experienced the last strongest rain at the mouth of neon canyon.