Severe flooding overtook Death Valley National Park early Wednesday, closing roads and triggering a flash flood warnings for one of the driest spots in the country.

"If you are here, take extreme caution," a message from the park reads. "Don't try to drive through flowing water. You often can't tell how deep it is."

A winter storm packed with tropical moisture swept into Southern California Tuesday, delivering heavy rain through Wednesday morning.

In a typical March, the Furnace Creek rain gauge in Death Valley records 0.3 inches of rainfall. In a 24-hour span running from Tuesday to Wednesday, the same gauge measured 0.84 inches. In the surrounding mountains, the National Weather Service estimates 1 to 1.5 inches fell.

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This might not sound like a lot of rain, but NWS meteorologist Todd Lericos explains the desert landscape doesn't easily absorb water the rain in the mountains is rushing down to the valley floor.

"The desert soils are dry and compact," Lericos, who works in the NWS Las Vegas office, said. "It's like putting water on concrete."

Sheila Rowe, the accounting coordinator at the Stovepipe Wells Village Hotel in the park, says the rain beats a sand storm.

"All the dust is down, and everything has been washed off," Rowe says. "You can see the true colors of the desert, the little bits of green."

Closed roads include Badwater Road, State Route 190 and State Route 178, according to the NWS, as of Wednesday morning.

Death Valley's average annual rainfall is 2.36 inches. Occasionally, the park in southeastern California sees no rain all year.