Monsoon storms moved into the Valley on Monday, knocking out power to thousands of customers, delaying some flights and forcing weather warnings across the Phoenix metro. By Monday evening, the storm had turned into a fast-moving test for utilities, travelers and anyone caught under the dust.
The scale was immediate. About 15,000 Salt River Project customers in Maricopa County were without power at one point in the evening, along with about 4,500 Arizona Public Service customers in the same county and about 10,000 more Salt River Project customers in Pinal County. A rain gauge in central Phoenix measured 1.26 inches in an hour, a burst that helps explain how quickly conditions worsened.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Phoenix, Scottsdale and Paradise Valley until 9:30 p.m., even as a Dust Storm Warning covered the Phoenix area until 7:45 p.m. A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Phoenix ended at 7:15 p.m. That mix of warnings shows how the storm was not moving in a clean line; it was delivering heavy rain, wind and blowing dust at the same time, each hazard shifting by the minute across different parts of the Valley.
Several flights were delayed at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport as the storm rolled through the Valley, but the story did not end when the warnings expired. The dust warning lasted 30 minutes after the severe thunderstorm warning ended, and the flood warning stayed in place well after that, a sign that the danger from runoff could outlast the worst of the wind. The broader monsoon event was still unfolding Monday night, and the practical question for people in the Phoenix metro was not whether the storm had passed, but how long the disruptions would keep spreading before the system finally moved on.
