It's Still The Year Of The Floods, Arizona, Tennessee Latest Victims

The inside of a flood-destroyed 
restaurant in Globe, Arizona. 

Over the spring and summer, I kept calling 2025 the Year Of The Floods. Devastating floods kept hitting so many parts of the U.S. through the winter, spring and summer.   

Those culminated with the immense Texas Hill Country flood over the July 4 weekend that killed at least 135 people. 

August in the U.S. was generally drier, but local floods continued to pick off communities and occasionally cost lives in various other parts of the nation.

The Year Of The Floods Hit again over the past few days. This time, Arizona and Tennessee were the big trouble spots.

The worst of these were in Arizona.

ARIZONA MONSOON

At least four people have died and there's widespread damage in normally arid Arizona due to intense monsoon storms. 

The worst of it hit the small city of Globe, Arizona, east of Phoenix. The old mining town with a population of 7,200 was swept by a flash flood Friday that turned downtown streets into whitewater rapids. 

About two inches of rain hit Globe Thursday, then several more inches poured down Friday, overwhelming dry washes and sending walls of water through the city and the nearby community of Miami. 

There have been three known deaths in and around Globe, and several other people are missing, reports the Arizona Republic. 

About 1,000 propane tanks from a distribution center were washed away in Globe and are scattered throughout the area. That obviously complicates the recovery effort, since some of them could still explode.

Video showed cars and propane tanks floating in downtown Globe with bursts of gas coming from some of the tanks. People at a baby shower in a Globe historical center said water burst in and almost immediately became at least waist deep inside the structure. Everybody at the baby shower was rescued. 

Downtown Globe has many historic buildings dating back to its mining past in the 1800s. Many of those buildings are now badly damaged. Exterior walls of the Wild Horses Saloon were blown out bye the rushing water. 

Serious flooding also hit around Phoenix and Scottsdale, where one person was reported dead and several other people were rescued from stuck, inundated cars. Phoenix had 1.64 inches of rain Friday, its wettest day since 2018.

TENNESSEE

In the mountains of east Tennessee, flash flooding and mudslides caused havoc on Saturday, especially around Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 

A landslide closed part of the Gatlinburg Bypass, a heavily traveled road around the tourist city of Gatlinburg and a gateway to the national park. Several other roads in the region were closed.

The rain has moved out of eastern Tennessee. Moisture from what will be Tropical Storm Imelda is unlikely to reach as far inland as the Smoky Mountains to an extent serious enough to cause more flooding.  

Although it's hard to determine whether the floods in Arizona and Tennessee have any link to climate change, they are consistent with it. A warming world means the atmosphere can hold more moisture that it could during cooler times. 

When the right storm comes along, that added moisture can result in extreme downpours, more intense than those we saw decades ago.