The morning of September 8, 2014, was far from ordinary. Streets in Phoenix and the Valley turned into rivers, freeway underpasses became lakes, leaving countless commuters stranded or delayed.
The Arizona National Guard that rescued more than 100 people stuck due to flash flooding in the Havasupai Falls says it was one of the largest missions ever completed.
Phoenix officially recorded 0.80″ of rainfall on August 23, 2012. That’s almost an entire month’s worth of rain, and about one-third of the normal monsoon grand total.
Some storms rolled through parts of the Valley late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning and as usual, the “winners and losers” of rainfall totals were separated by very small distances.
The weekly report from the U.S. Drought Monitor was released Thursday, and it shows despite some dry areas, most of Arizona is not in a drought right now.
Even though Maricopa County is in a desert, flooding is a very real threat. The intense rains of summer monsoon storms bring flash flooding you usually dry washes.
Monsoon storms can cause big trees to crash down causing property damage that could have been prevented if homeowners had taken some simple precautions.
Monsoon storms were active Wednesday across parts of Arizona, including the Phoenix area, knocking out power to thousands of people and a microburst caused serious damage.
An agreement has finally been signed, linking weather information from a radar site in rural Arizona to weather forecasters to better detect dust storms forming in a critical area.
Dust picked up from decaying thunderstorms in New Mexico, causing a hazy first day of summer around the Phoenix metro and central and southern Arizona.
While it’s fairly uncommon for Pacific hurricanes to make it into Arizona as intact tropical systems, the remnants and moisture from these storms often impact us in the late monsoon season.
The Climate Prediction Center is forecasting a 69% chance that La Niña will occur from July through September. What does that mean for the monsoon here in Arizona?