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Flooding in Twentynine Palms, CA.
TWENTYNINE PALMS, CA - AUGUST 1, 2024: Colin McGorty-Weir, 15, has been helping his family clear out their backyard pool which is still full of mud and a "catio," which got washed off the house during the July 14 monsoonal storm on August 1, 2024 in Twentynine Palms, California. Many residents who were hit with severe flooding don't live in a flood zone so they don't have flood insurance and are facing the prospect of recovering without and help from their insurance companies and little government support.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Alex Hall for LA Times — Monsoon flooding devastates Mojave Desert town — but also reveals its heart

UCLA climate scientist Alex Hall discusses the impact of a sudden and intense monsoon that struck Twentynine Palms, a rural city in the Mojave Desert, in mid-July 2024 with Los Angeles Times. The storm caused significant flooding, damaging homes and infrastructure, and leaving residents without sufficient warning. Hall highlights unexpected nature of the storm and its intensity were attributed to the difficulty in forecasting such small-scale weather events. 

“Predicting this requires monitoring the temperature and moisture at all locations throughout the entire atmosphere,” Hall said. We just don’t have the resources to do this type of monitoring.”