Death Valley flooding traps at least 1,000 in California national park

• All roads are currently closed in the national park, the park said Friday. No injuries or fatalities were reported as of Saturday morning.
• Park spokeswoman Abby Wine told the Review-Journal said most of the people who are trapped — 500 staffers and 500 visitors — are lodging in Furnace Creek or Stovepipe Wells.
• About 60 vehicles were damaged, the Los Angeles Times reports.

What happened: The park was hit with 1.46 inches of rain, measured at Furnace Creek, which caused the flash flooding, per the LA Times.

• This represents about 75% of the park's annual total; it gets about 2 inches of rain per year on average.
• The deluge was just shy of the park's record rainfall for a single day: 1.47 inches.

Of note: Death Valley is known globally for being where the highest temperature on Earth was recorded.

Our thought bubble via Axios' Andrew Freedman: The heavy rains and flash flooding are related to an active Southwest Monsoon season that is bringing welcome but hazardous downpours to parts of California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.

• While this is helping with drought relief for some, the extreme rainfall falling in such a short period of time in desert areas is an ideal recipe for flash flooding since the ground cannot absorb the water so quickly.
• Though the monsoon has been anemic in the past couple of years, flash flooding here and in other parts of the Southwest is common in active years.