Phoenix’s summer monsoon offered a sharp reminder recently of how quickly desert weather can turn dangerous. Heavy rain, gusty winds, blowing dust, and small hail swept across the Valley, knocking out power, delaying flights, and making travel hazardous.
What happened?
According to ABC15, the storm reached metro Phoenix on Monday evening, July 20, and lasted into Tuesday morning, with road cameras still picking up rain around 4 a.m. As the system moved west, the most notable effects were powerful wind and widespread outages.
The biggest utility problems came as SRP’s outage count climbed from about 9,000 customers to nearly 12,000 before beginning to drop. APS also showed thousands of customers without electricity at different points overnight.
Thunderstorms also affected air travel. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport went into a ground stop that remained in effect until 10:05 p.m. Dozens of flights were still delayed after it ended, and a United Airlines commercial flight was diverted to Luke Air Force Base because of severe weather…