Flash flood in the context of "Washland"

A point bar is a depositional feature made of alluvium that accumulates on the inside bend of streams and rivers below the slip-off slope. Point bars are found in abundance in mature or meandering streams. They are crescent-shaped and located on the inside of a stream bend, being very similar to, though often smaller than, towheads, or river islands.

Point bars are composed of sediment that is well sorted and typically reflects the overall capacity of the stream. They also have a very gentle slope and an elevation very close to water level. Since they are low-lying, they are often overtaken by floods and can accumulate driftwood and other debris during times of high water levels. Due to their near flat topography and the fact that the water speed is slow in the shallows of the point bar they are popular rest stops for boaters and rafters. However, camping on a point bar can be dangerous as a flash flood that raises the stream level by as little as a few inches (centimetres) can overwhelm a campsite in moments.

A gulch is a deep V-shaped valley formed by erosion. It may contain a small stream or dry creek bed and is usually larger in size than a gully. Sudden intense rainfall upstream may produce flash floods in the bed of the gulch.

In eastern Canada, gulch refers to:

The Tsauchab is an ephemeral river in the Hardap Region of central Namibia. Its source is in the southern Naukluft Mountains, from where it flows westwards through the Namib-Naukluft National Park into Sossusvlei, an endorheic basin. The lower river has in the past had a slightly different courses and also formed two other basins, the Deadvlei and the Hiddenvlei.

The Tsauchab is approximately 150 km (93 mi) long, its catchment area (including its tributary, the Zebra River) is estimated to be between 4,000 and 4,431 km (1,711 sq mi). Since it is in the Namib Desert, the Tsauchab carries water only during the rare times when rain falls in the Naukluft Mountains and runs off, since it cannot seep into the soil fast enough (see flash flood). During these rains, the Tsauchab becomes a rapid-running, strong river within a matter of hours. As a result of the occasional rains, it has over the past two million years carved the Sesriem Canyon, a 1 km (0.62 mi) long and up to 30 m (98 ft) deep canyon in sedimentary rock. Past the canyon, the Tsauchab flattens and grows broader, and is surrounded by a riparian forest as it slopes towards the Sossusvlei salt pan. In the Sossusvlei area, the riparian forest consists of both the living trees including Maerua crassifolia and the remaining skeletons of dead trees.

A braided river (also called braided channel or braided stream) consists of a network of river channels separated by small, often temporary, islands called braid bars or, in British English usage, aits or eyots.

Braided streams tend to occur in rivers with high sediment loads or coarse grain sizes, and in rivers with steeper slopes than typical rivers with straight or meandering channel patterns. They are also associated with rivers with rapid and frequent variation in the amount of water they carry, i.e., with "flashy" rivers, and with rivers with weak banks.

A wadi (/ˈwɒ.di/ WOD-ee; Arabic: وَادِي) is a river valley or a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the lowest portions of alluvial fans and extend to inland sabkhas or dry lakes. Permanent channels do not exist, due to lack of continual water flow. Water percolates down into the stream bed, causing an abrupt loss of energy and resulting in vast deposition. Wadis may develop dams of sediment that change the stream patterns in the next flash flood.

Wadis tend to be associated with centers of human population because sub-surface water is sometimes available in them. Nomadic and pastoral desert peoples will rely on seasonal vegetation found in wadis, even in regions as dry as the Sahara, as they travel in complex transhumance routes.

The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino and Riverside counties, before cutting through the northern Santa Ana Mountains via Santa Ana Canyon and flowing southwest through urban Orange County to drain into the Pacific Ocean. The Santa Ana River is 96 miles (154 km) long, and its drainage basin is 2,650 square miles (6,900 km) in size.

The Santa Ana drainage basin has a diversity of terrain, ranging from high peaks of inland mountains in the north and east, to the hot, dry interior and semidesert basins of the Inland Empire, to the flat coastal plain of Orange County. Although it includes areas of alpine and highland forest, the majority of the watershed consists of arid desert and chaparral environments. Due to low regional rainfall, the river carries only a small flow except during the brief winter season, when it is prone to massive flash floods. The San Jacinto River, which drains the southern half of the watershed, rarely reaches the Santa Ana except in extremely wet years. A wide variety of animal and plant communities depend on the riparian zones and remnant wetlands along the Santa Ana River.

The Little Colorado River (Hopi: Paayu) is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. state of Arizona, providing the principal drainage from the Painted Desert region. Together with its major tributary, the Puerco River, it drains an area of about 26,500 square miles (69,000 km) in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. Although it stretches almost 340 miles (550 km), only the headwaters and the lowermost reaches flow year-round. Between St. Johns and Cameron, most of the river is a wide, braided wash, only containing water after heavy snowmelt or flash flooding.

The lower 57.2 miles (92.1 km) is known as the Little Colorado River Gorge and forms one of the largest arms of the Grand Canyon, at over 3,000 feet (910 m) deep where it joins the Colorado near Desert View in Grand Canyon National Park. An overlook of the gorge is a Navajo Nation Tribal Park.

The 2010 Ladakh floods occurred on 6 August 2010 across a large part of Ladakh, then part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. 71 towns and villages were damaged, including the main town in the area, Leh. At least 255 people are reported to have died, six of whom were foreign tourists, after a cloudburst and heavy overnight rains triggered flash floods, mudflows, and debris flows. 200 people were reported missing in the initial aftermath of the storm, and thousands more were rendered homeless after the flooding caused extensive damage to property and infrastructure. Overall, 9,000 people were directly affected by the event.

The Vargas tragedy was a natural disaster that occurred in Vargas State (today La Guaira), Venezuela on 15 December 1999 (over the course of 10 days), when torrential rains caused flash floods and debris flows that killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed thousands of homes, and led to the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure. According to relief workers, the neighborhood of Los Corales was buried under 3 meters (9.8 ft) of mud and a high percentage of homes were simply swept into the ocean. Entire towns including Cerro Grande and Carmen de Uria completely disappeared. As much as 10% of the population of Vargas died during the event. A deadlier natural disaster would not occur until the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. According to Guinness World Records, it is the deadliest mudslide ever recorded.

The Klang River (Malay: Sungai Klang) flows through Kuala Lumpur and Selangor in Malaysia and eventually flows into the Straits of Malacca. It is approximately 120 km (75 mi) in length and drains a basin of about 1,288 km (497 sq mi). The Klang River has 11 major tributaries.

Because the river flows through Klang Valley, which is a heavily populated area of more than four million people, it is considerably polluted, because of deep siltation caused by human waste from informal settlers on the riverbanks and even from some business establishments without septic tanks or sewage treatment plants and by soil carried by mudflows from mountains. Heavy development has narrowed certain stretches of the river to the point that it resembles a large storm drain in places. This contributes to flash floods in Kuala Lumpur, especially after heavy rain. However the Klang river produces more than 50x more plastic pollution than Greece which is poorer and has more than double the population.