storm

Huge storm leaves thousands of Phoenicians without power

News

An ominous thunderstorm quickly turned to fast and heavy rain Monday night in the Phoenix area knocking down trees, flooding streets and leaving 70,000 without power.

In some parts of town the storm dumped over an inch of rain in under an hour, according to AZCentral.com, causing major flooding.

Fire officials received more than 400 calls within a two-hour period – the amount they would normally receive in a day – and responded to house fires, motorists stranded in floods, car accidents and other problems all brought upon by the storm.

Now, two days after the chaos, the city is on the mend. Fallen trees and power lines are being taken care of, and SRP and APS have made substantial progress toward restoring power.

While the storm was hitting, it was quite a sight to behold. Civilians and news stations took to social media to share their shots of the storm, and The Weather Channel even posted a time-lapse video of the thunderstorm as it hit Phoenix which can be seen here.

Monday’s storm hit hard, but it’s not so out of character for an Arizona monsoon. A storm that slammed through the Phoenix metro area in 1996 was called by some “the costliest storm in Arizona history” as it caused around $160 million in damage. Another storm in 2002 had winds excess of 100 miles per hour and major flash flooding in the Phoenix area.

Arizona monsoon season begins on June 15 and ends on September 30, during which Arizona typically receives about half of its yearly rain fall.