Wednesday night’s storms in metro Phoenix overperformed and really put on a show of dust, strong winds and heavy rain.
Multiple storms’ outflows combined to bring a swath of thunderstorm clusters behind
a wall of dust that spanned Maricopa and Pinal counties the night of Aug. 19.
Winds hit speeds as high as 68 mph overnight and there were nearly 3,000 lightning strikes in a 3.5-hour period.
Between the two counties, over 31,000 households were without power at the peak, around 10:30 pm.
The highest rainfall amounts fell around Guadalupe, Tempe and Mesa. Here are some of the totals around town:
- 1.30 inches at Alma School Road and Sixth Street in Mesa
- 1.26 inches at Grand and McLellan Road in Mesa
- 1.22 inches at the Arizona Grand Resort near Guadalupe
- 1.02 inches at ASU, Tempe Marketplace
- 0.83 of an inch at 44th Street and Knox Road in Ahwatukee, and at Queen Creek and Ellsworth roads
- 0.56 of an inch at Sky Harbor International Airport
The forecast looking forward
Air quality is a concern for the rest of the work week due to the dust combined with ozone. An ozone high pollution advisory is in effect for Thursday, and a watch is in effect for Friday.
Expect Thursday to remain much quieter. The overturned atmosphere has dramatically lowered any storm chances in the Valley down to about 10%. While storms are not expected to survive the stable environment, strong winds and blowing dust will still be possible.
All the storms and leftover cloud cover kept temperatures in the 80s until about 8:30 a.m. The cooler start will keep temperatures from breaking 110, giving residents a little reprieve; however the extreme heat warning is still in effect through Sunday evening.
Storm chances then stay down beginning Friday and over the weekend as a high pressure shift filters in some drier air.
Meteorologist Tevian Whitehurst covers extreme weather and climate for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Follow him at @TevianWX on Instagram and Facebook (Meteorologist Tevian Whitehurst).
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Dust, wild winds and rain hit Phoenix. What forecast has in store
