The Gila River near Solomon, Arizona, crested at 26.86 feet in the first days of November, beating its 1983 flood record of 20.8 feet by more than 6 feet. The reading came on Monday, Nov. 2, as moisture from an atmospheric river soaked the Southwest. By that morning, 10 flood gauges across Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico had already logged new height records.
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The rain that fed the river fell mostly on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Much of Arizona north and east of Phoenix collected 2 to 4 inches, while the community of Crown King, roughly 90 miles northwest of the city, took 6.21 inches, the highest total in the region. Flagstaff alone received 3.37 inches on Nov. 1, more than double the city’s usual 1.55 inches for an entire November.
Solomon gauge: 26.86 feet against a 20.8-foot mark from 1983
AccuWeather writer Brian Lada reported in a Nov. 2 account of the storm that the Gila crest at Solomon topped a record that had stood for 112 years of gauge history, reaching 26.86 feet against the 1983 figure of 20.8 feet. AccuWeather meteorologist Jesse Ferrell supplied the tally of record-setting gauges, which he put at 10 across the three states as of Monday morning.
The reading matters because the National Weather Service in Tucson had been working from a lower number. Its flood warning for the Gila near Solomon, issued at 3:54 a.m. on Monday, showed the river at 25.3 feet at 3:30 a.m. with a crest of 26.0 feet expected early that morning. The final reading ran nearly a foot above that forecast, and the same warning said the river was already in major flood.
The Tucson warning also covered the Upper Gila, where moderate flooding was forecast, and it projected the river would fall below flood stage late on Monday afternoon with its next update due at 4:00 p.m. The gap between the forecast and the observed 26.86 feet is the clearest sign of how fast conditions moved overnight.
Flood stage at Solomon and the north sides of three towns
The Tucson office put flood stage at the Solomon gauge at 21.0 feet and bankfull at 19.0 feet. At 24.0 feet, its impact statement said, several homes and businesses flood, mostly on the north sides of Solomon, Safford and Thatcher, and bridges can be overtopped. The river passed that mark and kept climbing past 26 feet, which put it more than 2 feet above the level where those impacts begin.
One gap remains in the record. The warning text carried no flood history for the site, so the 1983 comparison rests on AccuWeather’s reporting. The U.S. Geological Survey operates the Gila River gauge at the head of Safford Valley near Solomon, with peak data on file back to August 1914, and its published peak-flow table is where the official ranking will eventually be settled.
Salt River, Oak Creek and the rest of the record list
The Gila was not alone. The Salt River near Roosevelt reached 30.6 feet early Monday, topping its January 1993 crest of 30.1 feet, and Oak Creek near Cornville passed its own 1993 stage as runoff poured off higher ground. In the Verde Valley, the National Weather Service in Flagstaff listed flooded structures along Wet Beaver Creek and Dry Beaver Creek, with Interstate 17 closed through a long stretch between mile markers 290 and 317.
Las Vegas, on the dry edge of the system, logged 0.09 inch of rain on Saturday, its first Halloween rain since 1987, which shows how sharply the totals dropped from the Arizona highlands. Coconino County, meanwhile, activated its Emergency Operations Center as flooding closed major roads and prompted evacuations. The gap between a trace of rain in Nevada and a record river in the Gila Valley came down to where the moisture plume aimed.
The human toll arrived before the crest. Firefighters in Henderson, Nevada, pulled a person from a flooded wash on Friday, and FOX5 in Las Vegas reported the person died at a hospital after going into cardiac arrest. In Flagstaff, the City of Flagstaff said a man lost his footing near fast-moving water on Sunday evening, fell in and was not seen resurfacing. Pima County deputies logged 16 water rescues by Sunday afternoon. Flooding also reached the Continental Golf Club in Scottsdale, where an Associated Press photographer captured the water on Nov. 2.
Reservoir managers saw a different side of the same storm. Lake Powell and Lake Mead have both risen in recent weeks after late-October storms, though AccuWeather noted the gains do not end the long-term drought. More rain and mountain snow may follow, and the outlet’s 2026-2027 winter forecast points to a strong El Niño reshaping the season. The open question is whether the Gila’s new high-water mark survives the winter or whether another storm arrives first.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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