Monsoon Season

This was a clip from our local news last Wednesday, July 6^th:

A blanket of haze upwards of 10,000 feet high still covered downtown Phoenix Wednesday afternoon, caused by dust from Tuesday’s storm. The dust will remain if another dust storm hits tonight, but could dissipate with rainfall. The wall of dust, which originated between Phoenix and Tucson, rolled into the Valley just before 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The mile-high dust storm moved between speeds of 50 and 60 mph and appeared to be nearly 100 miles wide, according to the Weather Service’s radar. The dust began to settle by the time it reached Yuma later in the evening. A typical dust storm in Arizona might reach 1,000 feet and travel between 30 and 40 mph.

At its peak Tuesday night, visibility fluctuated between zero to a quarter of a mile.

“I’ve been (in Arizona) for nearly 33 years, and I’ve never seen as thick a coating of dust, on streets and cars, as this one,” Ellis said. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was forced to shut down for nearly an hour, spokeswoman Julie Rodriguez said. All planes were grounded between 8 p.m. and 8:45 p.m., and some flights were diverted to Tucson and California for landing. At least two flights were canceled.

The storm was so powerful, it blew a heavy cloud of dust into the terminals, triggering fire alarms. Airport custodial crews were busy washing windows and cleaning curbs late Wednesday morning.

Phoenix Fire Department received more than 700 calls for service as the storm rolled through the city.

The storm was part of the Arizona monsoon season, which typically starts in mid-June and lasts through Sept. 30.

(Photos compliments of the Internet)

My take on the whole thing: This is the first time I’ve seen something like this.  My intention in opening the front door was to pull my patriotic wreath off the front door because I could hear from all of the bashing against the door that it was too windy for it.  As I unlocked the door and slightly turned the handle the door flew open as it was a pressurized spring just waiting to snap.  I knew it wasn’t supposed to be as dark as it was for the time of day.  It was only early evening but there was an eerie feeling out there.  Trash, leaves and dust flew down our street with incredible speed. Of course at this time I didn’t know what was happening.  I just figured it was a natural part of monsoon season.  I imagined it was a little bit like how Dorothy felt in the beginning of the Wizard of Oz when her house blew away.  It felt like it was almost right out of a movie.  It wasn’t until about an hour later while watching the news that I actually realized what I had seen and experienced.  I now wish that I would have paid closer attention and had gotten Ricky to come down and see it. 

Every area of the country has it’s own weather issues.  I’m used to the earthquakes and I’ve been in white out snow storms.  I would still rather deal with monsoon season than a hurricane, tornado or snow storms.  I guess that’s a big reason why we live in Arizona.