Hail and downbursts...

[azskyman]

Images of accumulated hail in west Phoenix at this time. Rainfall has been heavy, and the west side of Sky Harbor International Airport has reported downbursts. No flights arriving at this time.

This comes at the rush hour in a city where people already don't know how to drive. Accident reports are numerous, as you might expect.

Street flooding is substantial too. This should move to our east within the next 45 minutes.

[azskyman]

Hey, you'll enjoy the videos of Phoenix covered in white after the hail if your local station or TWC picks up on it. Quite a storm for March! Ironically, expecting 85 next week as the storm moves out and high pressure sets in!

[Josephine96]

I can't picture there being hail in Phoenix

[azskyman]

Had 1.25" of rain from this storm. Plenty of street and stream flooding, and enough hail to turn things white in Sun City AZ. Fun, but only dangerous to drivers and those living along those streambeds.

[Aslkahuna]

is not that uncommon in Arizona. In fact, with the SKYWARN networks in place we are starting to realize that AZ gets OK/TX size hail on a fairly regular basis. Two Summers ago saw a baseball hail hit in downtown Tucson which did a number on my son's car. I have video of tennis ball hail on the ground and large hail actually falling at my house. The largest hail reported in AZ has been softball hail which occurred south of Tucson on the night of 27-28 September 1995 during a severe outbreak that included tornadoes (84 mph wind gusts and tennis ball hail did significant damage on Fort Huachuca). Last Summer, I chased a number of severe storms including two close to the house that had 64mph and 85mph wind gusts respectively and had a hit at the house that I also videotaped with 60-70 mph microburst winds. Tornado fatalities have also occurred in AZ and tornadoes are seen nearly every Summer in some part of the state. What makes storm chasing fun in AZ (aside from the unpredictibility of AZ Monsoon storms) is that I don't have to drive 500 miles to see a severe storm and often it's less than 100 miles and on occasion only 1/2 mile. This is why we have Hazardous Weather Outlooks in AZ.

Steve

PS: We also have seen Tropical Storms here as well.

[isobar]

Tennis ball size hail??? Yipes!!

I saw the street flooding videos, but not hail. Would surely be a sight.

[Stormsfury]

I can't picture there being hail in Phoenix

Actually, due to topography and the monsoon in Arizona, Tucson is one of the hotbeds in the entire US for thunderstorms ...

[Guest]

[Rainband]

Nice picture

[Aslkahuna]

Sierra Vista is even a hotter bed for thunderstorms than Tucson. The name of our local mountains-Huachuca is a pre Columbian native word meaning "Place of Thunder". We have 65 days with thunder of which 90% occur during the monsoon which lasts from early July into early September. During those 65 days we average 86 thunderstorms and multiple thunderstorm days are common. What's even more interesting is that thunderstorms can form here at any time of the day or night. The nighttime light shows can produce spectacular views.

Steve

[azskyman]

Question from up north. Does Green Valley have even a higher thunderstorm day count than Sierra Vista, Steve? Seems like it does after watching for the last 6 years.

[Aslkahuna]

of days with thunder though it's close. They get the storms that intially develop along the Huachucas and move NW into the Santa Ritas where they blow up when they reach the hot desert. But while over the Huachucas we'll hear thunder and even get a little rain from the storms as they move NW. The local hot bed though is the Canelo-Patagonia-Sonoita-Elgin area where the storms get their initial blow up when they move off the Huachucas. That area averages over 20 inches of rain per year and I've seen some real monsters there both in person and on radar.

Steve