It was announced this week that a fatality had been reported at Poncho’s Kitchen in the Grand Canyon National Park. It marked the seventh death in little over a month, bringing the count for 2024 to just shy of the annual average. As the National Parks Service (NPS) updates its website with warnings of exceptional temperatures, it seems the extremes of weather found in the park may be creating the perfect storm for hikers.
“The arid, sparsely vegetated environment here means that rainfall quickly generates runoff because the ground doesn’t absorb it well,” NPS spokesperson Rebecca Roland told The Hill. “This runoff moves rapidly through narrow canyons and steep terrain, turning dry streambeds into torrents of water within minutes, even from relatively small storms.”
Flash flooding isn’t unique to the Grand Canyon, also being a cause of death for hikers in Buckskin Gulch, a slot canyon in southern Utah. The phenomenon may be connected to atmospheric rivers, as suggested by CNN meteorologist Robert Shackleford.
Atmospheric rivers are slender, transient columns of condensed water vapor that travel in the atmosphere – “like rivers in the sky,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). When the “river” makes it to land, it’s usually in the form of heavy rain or snowfall, and it seems that climate change may be making them bigger.
Traveling to, from, and inside national parks can present many dangers.
Image credit: Natalia Bratslavsky / Shutterstock.com
That’s not the only danger climate change is bringing to the Grand Canyon, however. That arid, sparsely vegetated environment Roland spoke of is driven by searing-hot temperatures. At time of writing, the Inner Canyon is reportedly reaching temperatures of 39°C (102°F), with the NPS suggesting nobody hike between the hours of 10.00 am and 4.00 pm.
Not all of the deaths reported at the Grand Canyon National Park in 2024 can necessarily be connected to climate change, such as accidental falls. There was also a BASE jumping fatality in which a person was found 152 meters (500 feet) below the South Rim with a deployed parachute. However, some are asking if a rise in extreme weather events driven by climate change could be behind the already high number of fatalities for the current season.
Earlier this year, the NPS released a climate change report to explore the potential future threats the Grand Canyon could face from rising temperatures. “We already have a pretty long season where hikers are at risk from heat, and yeah, we expect that to broaden out across the spring and fall,” said Garrison Loope of Grand Canyon National Park to NPR, in a statement that’s backed up by the findings of a 2023 paper.
Getting outside continues to be one of the best things you can do for your physical and mental health, but it’s vitally important to plan ahead. If you’re planning a hike, always check the local authorities’ most up-to-date advice on weather warnings and safety precautions. As the climate crisis rolls on, staying safe is more important than ever.
