Imagine this being 3 to 4 feet high coming across the desert near Landers near Big Bear in Deserts of Southern California.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1ODt3fNgZg 

If you saw this water coming 3 to 4 feet high off the mountains of Big Bear heading across the desert towards you suddenly what would you think? This is what I experienced around 1968 or 1969 then and I burned rubber and turned my car around in my 1968 Camaro before it lifted my Camaro off the ground. Luckily I was on a paved road so I could do at least 70 miles per hour or more to get away from it before it carried my car and me sideways across the desert to an unknown location.

Here's the thing about places like Nevada, California, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico and Texas and a few other places. Water can cloudburst out of the sky and hit mountains and soon dry washes are filled with 1 to 6 or 7 feet of water. If you are unlucky enough to be in those places and can't get out of them before the water hits you are basically dead.

So, this is what you always look for in these kinds of places: 

Are there rain clouds on mountains near you or are they really near you?

Are you in a dry wash or near the edge of a mountain range. These rain clouds can also be 25 to 50 miles away from you and still kill you by the way. So, always be looking for things like this especially if you are hanging out in a dry wash. If you look at this dry wash it is there for a reason from the last cloudburst that washed away the whole area in a storm. So, dry washes might be dry 95% of the year and then one day they are 7 feet or more high with a cloudburst of rain from somewhere within 25 to 50 miles of you. 

Understanding this is one way you stay alive in the desert.

Also, Monsoons in the southern Deserts are most common between about May and September so even though this might seem counterintuitive for you from where you live this is how deserts of the southwest actually are. So, the biggest likelihood to actually die in a monsoon Mud river on the desert might be May through September, even though it can also happen in the fall, winter or spring too. So, riding a motorcycle or bicycling or walking anywhere near a dry wash or even in your car might be dangerous if there is any rainfall nearby within 50 miles of you.