FORT COLLINS, Colo. — FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — A region more accustomed to baking heat than soggy weather is about to get soaked, raising the risk of flash floods that can surprise — and kill — in minutes.

Downgraded from a powerful hurricane, Tropical Storm Priscilla has lost its punch in the eastern Pacific Ocean near the coast of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. But the storm still carries plenty of moisture and is now bearing down on the southwestern U.S., where flood warnings already were posted Thursday.

Forecasters expected rain bands from Priscilla’s remnants to saturate areas of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado through this weekend, bringing as much moisture in hours as some of those places might get all year.

Recent deadly flooding in Texas and New Mexico speaks to what can go badly with rain like that.

“We don’t want to see people caught up in the hazards we are going to be seeing,” said meteorologist Robert Rickey with the National Weather Service in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Northern Arizona is most at risk, with 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 centimeters) of rain likely in and around Flagstaff, the national park gateway city south of the Grand Canyon.

Some areas could get even more, said Rickey, but where exactly that will happen is impossible to predict very long in advance.

High-elevation Flagstaff gets ample rain, upward of 2 feet (60 centimeters) a year, though not often in such big doses. Southwestern and northeastern Arizona see far less, in some places as little as 5 inches (13 centimeters) or less a year; Phoenix gets just 7 or 8 inches (18 to 20 centimeters) a year.

In such deserts, downpours on paved, urban landscapes with minimal drainage infrastructure and in backcountry areas mazed with canyons can become deadly fast.

Worried folks headed outdoors have been calling the National Weather Service asking if they should cancel. The agency has been kept open during the government shutdown.

“I had to have that kind of frank conversation with them,” Rickey said. “Is the risk worth the reward?”

After heat, flooding is the deadliest weather phenomenon in the U.S., killing 145 people in 2024. Many victims were in their cars, braving high water that can be deceptively dangerous.

In Arizona, a “stupid motorist law” allows drivers to be billed up to $2,000 if they drive around a barricade or warning sign into a flooded area and have to be rescued.

By encouraging smarter driving, the law attempts to reduce the state’s dozens of such rescues every year. Some, though, worry the law discourages people from seeking help right away, putting them in worse danger. The law isn’t consistently enforced.

The Southwest’s desert canyons and arroyos are notorious for flash flooding risk. Even a storm miles (kilometers) upstream can turn a dry wash into a raging torrent, churning debris downstream and blocking the way out for hikers and cars.

That is what happened in southern Utah a couple weeks ago, when a desert canyon flood trapped at least 10 people, all of whom were eventually accounted for by officials.

Mountains can also channel deadly flooding. In June, three people, including children ages 7 and 4, were killed in a flash flood at a riverside RV park.

Forested areas can become worse for flash flooding if they have recently burned clear of vegetation that can hold back water and allow it to soak into the ground. This weekend, that includes the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, which burned in a massive wildfire last summer.

The National Weather Service had posted a flash flood watch for most of Arizona, as well as southern Utah and smaller portions of California, Nevada and Colorado.

Strong storms already were moving north across Arizona and southern Utah, bringing up to an inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain in places. Scattered flash flood warnings were posted along the state line, including for Lake Powell and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Much of the Southwest’s rain comes during the summer monsoon season of scattered storms from mid-June through September. Rain from autumn tropical systems like this one might happen once a year, said Rickey, the meteorologist.

In Flagstaff, heavy equipment was being positioned across the city, and staff were monitoring low water crossings and areas where wildfires have burned for potential flooding.

Self-serve sandbags were available to residents at a city park, and water was being released from a pond to make more room for runoff.

The Havasupai Tribe, whose reservation is deep in a gorge off the Grand Canyon and is prone to flooding, advised tourists in a social media post not to hike to certain areas if it is raining or flooding, and to seek higher ground if they see water rushing through the area.

The reservation is one of the most remote in the continental U.S. and is accessible only by mule or foot. Tourists worldwide visit for the blue-green waterfalls and creekside campground.

Mike Rock with Junipine Resort in Sedona, which sits along Oak Creek, said staff were monitoring road and weather conditions, and letting guests know to take precautions.

Picnic tables closer to the creek will be moved if the water rises. If flooding or rock falls shut down nearby roads, staff can stay at the resort, as is typical with bad weather, he said.

“All signs are indicating we’re going to get pretty hard,” he said.

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Associated Press Assistant News Director Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Authorities are warning hikers to steer clear of streams and rivers where salmon are running and to take precautions after bears mauled hikers on two different occasions within a week in Anchorage.

Both unidentified hikers survived the attacks in separate parts of the municipality of Anchorage, a sprawling urban-wildlife interface that spreads across 1,961 square miles (5,079 square kilometers), an area slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island.

Anchorage is home to about 290,000 people, or about 40% of the state’s population, and all kinds of wildlife, including an estimated 350 black bears, 65 brown bears and 1,600 moose.

One Facebook group captures stunning videos and photographs of bears, moose, wolves and other wildlife living and traveling within a half mile of a populated neighborhood in east Anchorage, in the shadows of the Chugach Mountains.

“Every year we recommend that folks avoid salmon-bearing streams because that concentrates both species of bears,” said Cory Stantorf, the Anchorage area biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “That’s a major food source for these animals as they get ready for that hibernation season coming up.”

Both bear maulings in the last week occurred near populated areas, including the second attack Saturday near the suburb of Eagle River.

A man was walking on a trail that runs parallel to the south fork of the Eagle River, where salmon are running, when his unleashed dog happened upon a brown bear with a cub, said Timothy Gurnett, a Chugach State Park ranger.

The bear mauled the hiker, who unloaded his entire can of spray deterrent to ward off the bear, first to stop the attack and then a second time when the bear returned. The sow and her cub disappeared into the woods.

Armed officials searched for the bear on foot and with a drone, but the bear had left the area.

Officials believe the sow was protecting her cub, and don’t intend to kill it.

“That’s not something we go after bears for because any sow in that position would have likely done the same,” Stantorf said.

The first attack occurred July 22 when a bear attacked a woman on a popular trail in a hillside neighborhood overlooking Anchorage and Cook Inlet.

The woman called police and said she had been attacked by what she thought was a brown bear about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) into the trail near the Stuckagain Heights neighborhood.

Cyndi Wardlow, a regional supervisor for the state Department of Fish and Game, said shortly after the attack that it has not been determined if the bear was a brown bear or a cinnamon black bear, which could look like a brown bear.

Visibility on the trail was very low, with tall grass and heavy brush. Wardlow said staff was able to collect hair and scat samples for submission for analysis, but it could take two weeks to get results. Stantorf said they are still waiting for results.

Officials were hoping the samples could shed light on the type of bear and if it was male or female. Since they didn’t know what they were working with, she said they weren’t actively searching for an animal after that.

At this time of the year, people should avoid the salmon-bearing waterways.

“There’s so many other places to hike,” Gurnett said. Those areas include over 300 miles (483 kilometers) of trails within Chugach State Park, 95% of which lies within the Municipality of Anchorage.

Hikers should be extra vigilant when they are next to a river since the water masks sounds, and bears don’t hear people coming. Hikers could carry and sound air horns to let bears know they are nearby.

“Bears don’t want to be around us. They want to be somewhere else,” he said.

Regardless of where people may hike, whether it is in the backcountry or near waterways, there is always a chance they could have a bear encounter or come across a moose, wolf or wolverine, Stantorf said.

Stantorf recommends people travel in groups, make noise, have bear spray ready, don’t run or hike with earbuds in, keep pets leashed and be aware of your surroundings.

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Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed.