The Phoenix Arizona Monsoon

Monsoon is defined as: "A seasonal shift in winds".

Well, last night we got hammered. The local news said there was a microburst in our area and I think we had the brunt of it at our house.

The winds were the strongest I’ve ever experienced in a storm. We had rain driving sideways the winds were so strong. Our BBQ grill tried to “lift off” but I caught it as it tried and I moved it to safety, our lawn furniture went for a ride, we lost a seven foot tall Mexican Bird of Paradise (it’ll grow back in no time since there is still about 1-2 feet of plant left) and lost some small trees too as well as many, many branches from other trees and bushes. We also lost part of our roof, I was chasing roof shingles around during the storm and collecting them for my later attempt at the jigsaw puzzle that was our roof after the storm.

As soon as my wife got home, I got up on the roof and began over an hours worth of nailing and tarring shingles back into place. We are still missing four shingles, but I’m sure a neighbor has them in their yard… LOL. Weird thing was the microburst HAD to be from the storms actually dying out because they didn’t make it even five miles from our house.

Deer Valley airport got some rain (see below taken from NOAA.gov) but they did not get the winds we got, their max gust was 30 MPH. I measured over 30 mile per hour gusts on my Kesler 4000 portable weather station before the real deal started. Once the winds really picked up, I was in our carport watching things fly by so I didn’t dare go out directly into the wind to get another measurement, but I tell you it had to be over 60 MPH and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was over 80 MPH. The hard winds and rain lasted about 25 minutes or so…

26 Jul 6:50 pm
77 - temp
NE 18MPH - winds
24MPH - gusts
-TSRA
BKN018 OVC110
1.46 - inches of rain

I remember when my wife and I bought our first home in 1996 (the new one on Charleston) it was either summer of 96 or 97 and I was out showing homes in the east valley and we had a big storm blow through. The winds were in excess of 115 MPH which is where the wind gauge broke at Deer Valley airport. Wish I had been there for that so I had something to compare to last night.

Our power was off last night from around 6:00PM until just after 9. It was kind of cool sitting outside with my wife on Grandma’s old swing with candles burning for light on our kitchen counter. Was almost disappointing when the power came back on, but we needed to shower and get to bed so I guess it was a good thing.

Well, that’s my story… I hope you enjoyed it!

Visit my other site for detailed information on the Monsoon and view my Phoenix Monsoon photos while you're there!

Matthew Pellerin
Author of Arizona Real Estate News