Meteorologists call intense flooding that hit California's Death Valley 'once-in-1,000-year event'

Meteorologists have called the rare and intense flooding that hit California's Death Valley a ''once-in-1,000-year event''.

According to the National Park Service (NPS), the flood in the famously parched park had left thousands of people stranded and bogged down 60 cars under mounds of debris.

Experts at NASA’s Earth Observatory said that the storm poured an amount of water equal to roughly 75 per cent of the average annual total in just three hours.

With a 0.1 per cent likelihood during a given year, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Las Vegas called Daniel Berc described the deluge as a historic “1,000-year event”.

Death Valley is the largest national park in the 48 lower states with its vast sand dunes and endless badlands.

The desert basin is the driest place in North America and is described as “a land of extremes” as it is known for temperatures that have climbed higher than any other place on Earth.

Almost tying the previous daily record of 1.47 inches, a total of 1.46 inches (3.7 centimetres) of rain fell in the park's Furnace Creek area.

“With climate change models predicting more frequent and more intense storms, this is a place where you can see climate change in action,” park superintendent Mike Reynolds told news agency AFP.

Some regions will experience increasingly intense and frequent rainfall even if the world manages to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius according to UN climate experts.

(With inputs from agencies)

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