Monsoon storms batter Phoenix area, downing trees and disrupting flights

A series of monsoon thunderstorms swept through metro Phoenix this week, knocking down trees in Gilbert, cutting power to thousands of customers, and forcing a temporary ground stop at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The storms brought heavy rain, high winds and hail to parts of the Valley, with more scattered activity expected through Thursday and Friday before a drying trend and a sharp warmup arrive by early next week.

What damage did the storms cause?

The hardest-hit area reported was Gilbert, where a powerful storm overnight into Aug. 13 toppled numerous trees near Baseline and Gilbert roads, blocking streets and trapping some residents in their neighborhood. Landscaping crews, including Element Landscape’s Jared Gray, worked from evening into early morning cutting up fallen trees to reopen roads. Resident Mitch Crowley described flooding in his backyard and a grill knocked over by the wind, calling the storm more intense than others he’d seen. Neighbor Isha Martinez said she couldn’t get through the blocked road and had to find another route home.

How widespread were the power outages and flight disruptions?

ABC15’s live tracker reported thousands of utility customers losing power as storms moved across the Valley Thursday afternoon, with figures fluctuating as outages were reported: at various points nearly 4,700 SRP customers and close to 2,900 APS customers were affected, alongside smaller outage counts for each utility. The FAA issued a ground stop at Phoenix Sky Harbor because of thunderstorms. AZFamily separately reported that departing flights from the Los Angeles area bound for Sky Harbor were held around 5:15 p.m., with the ground stop expected to last until at least 6 p.m.

Where were the storms concentrated?

Coverage points to shifting storm cells across different parts of the Valley over consecutive days. A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Maricopa and Pinal counties, with forecasters flagging Avondale and Tolleson as facing the greatest risk of damaging winds during one wave. A separate storm developed east of Maricopa and moved north into south Phoenix, prompting a severe storm warning for Laveen and nearby Komatke. AZFamily noted this later round was weaker than Wednesday’s storms, when Gilbert and Tempe each received more than an inch of rain.

What’s the forecast for the days ahead?

AZFamily reports shower and thunderstorm chances continuing in the High Country through Thursday night and into Friday, with drying conditions expected in the Valley over the weekend. Temperatures are forecast to climb from around 100 degrees Friday to 105 on Saturday and 108 on Sunday. An extreme heat watch has been issued for Maricopa and Pinal counties for early next week, with highs expected near or above 110 degrees Monday through Wednesday and overnight lows staying in the 90s.

How are outlets covering this differently?

Local TV stations largely covered the same storm system from different angles rather than presenting conflicting facts. 12 News offered only a brief note that storms were moving through again Thursday. FOX 10 focused most closely on the human impact in Gilbert, using on-the-ground interviews with cleanup crews and residents to convey how sudden and disruptive the overnight storm was. ABC15 leaned on real-time, numbers-driven updates — outage counts, warning boundaries and the airport ground stop — in a running live-blog format. AZFamily provided the fullest forecast context, tying the storm activity to a broader week-long weather pattern and flagging the extreme heat watch coming next week.

Sources

• 12 News Phoenix
• FOX 10 Phoenix — Monsoon: Crews clear downed trees blocking Gilbert roads · Monsoon: Crews clear Gilbert streets after storm · Monsoon brings rain to much of Arizona
• ABC15 Arizona
• AZFamily

Featured photo: Shereth via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)