Odile's Gift to the Twin Cities of Portal Rodeo

Hurricane Odile arrived from the Pacific after moving across northern Mexico and southern Arizona.  Its' arrival began as a slow march of cloud cover up the San Simon valley and over the mountains.  The resulting sunset was a multicolored event that belied the amount of rain that was to fall.  The first 2 days of rain were light at the Painted Pony Resort where a modest 0.11" and 0.26" of rain were recorded.  Then the main mass of the storm arrived bringing significant amounts of rainfall to the area with reported 1 day totals between 4 - 5 inches of rain around the valley.  Cave Creek Canyon experienced serious flooding as did areas of the valley including highway 80.  The main mass of the storm delivered 3.34" of rain to the estate over a 24 hr period and then began to taper off with a final days total of 0.41".  The total accumulated rainfall for the storm on the estate was 4.17" bringing the yearly reported total for station NM-HD-17 to 12.54".

As shown in the images below, water flow across the landscape (flooding) was confined to 2 areas where an old drainage from the west crosses the estate on its way to the San Simon river bed.  Experiencing mostly sheet flooding water depth reached a maximum depth of 1-2', although wide swaths of the road were flooded.  Of course the riverbed itself as conduit for water from up the valley (to the south) had several feet of water and the east side of the estate is currently inaccessible.  The check dams, tumbleweed garlands, and topsoil restoration barriers preformed well and all were in place after the storm.  Capturing sediment and slowing water flow these structures protected segments of the road and barren areas of the landscape slowing the water and depositing sediment.  One problem arroyo along Painted Pony Rd. collected about a foot of sediment during the storm demonstrating the efficacy of water management efforts on the estate.

The arrival of Odile was heralded by a multicolored sunset over the San Simon valley.

After the big rain - looking west at the flow across Nighthawk Rd.

After the big rain - looking south at the flow across Painted Pony Rd.

After the big rain - an old drainage that has good grass cover.

After the big rain - a check dam with tumbleweed garland and newly collected sediment along Painted Pony Road.

After the big rain - performance of topsoil restoration barrier installed last year.