Arizona Monsoon Season

[Tony]

09/07/02 3:30 PM MT

My wife and I were at the gun show when the storm hit. We heard that there was a tornado warning from one of the vendors. WE waited for the rain to stop. When we got into the Pilot we turned on the radio. The newscaster said there was a tornado warning for the western part of the valley and that the storm was moving north, northeast. Towards our home.

The traffic was moving at a crawl and our Pilot was doing fine. The roads were badly flooded on the way home, unfortunately we did not have the camera then.

When we got home, (which was fine) we noticed the trees looked strange. They were missing most of their leaves. Then we noticed pinecones, branches, and leaves everywhere. We grabbed our camera.


Here's a couple of stripped trees. My work van on the left.

[Tony]

The sidewalks were covered with leaves and branches.

[Tony]

Then as we walked back to the Pilot, my wife saw a pile of hail hidden next to a stump.

[Tony]

We went back to our yard and checked under a tree and found more. Some of these are 1-1/2 inches wide. These are the largest hail I have ever seen.

[Tony]

I checked my Trooper, which isn't parked under the carport, and sure enough there were little dents all over the hood. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to clean it off and really take a good look at it.

Well, we hoped into the Pilot and drove around the neighborhood and took some photos.


Here's a flooded road. This one is not even close to the deep one we drove through getting home.

[Tony]

This tree didn't make it.

[Tony]

So.... What do kids do when their park gets flooded?


PLAY!!!!!

[Tony]

And Play!

[Tony]

So how does the Pilot handle the adverse weather?


Fantastic!

[Tony]

I really like it's ground clearance.

PS. That's my wife in the seat.

[Tony]

Well that's the monsoon report for now.

When it dries up around here it will be time to give the Pilot a really good bath.

[copperpoppy]

Originally posted by Tony
Well that's the monsoon report for now. When it dries up around here it will be time to give the Pilot a really good bath.

This is the first time today that I dared to get online. With these storms - I've made sure everything is unplugged.

I'm GLAD to hear you are alright. When the storms hit up here, I didn't think much of it. We had some pea-sized hail and lots of rain but, nothing out of the ordinary. THEN, I heard the reports coming out of Phoenix. My first thoughts were to you and Threadhead - and your Pilots.

Glad to hear you and your Pilot are safe and sound. Haven't heard from Threadhead though. I hope he and his Pilot are alright. I heard about the hail you guys had and that can just destroy a car. When we had that hailstorm up here two years ago, all the cars at York Honda were hit. If you drive around up here, you'll still see a lot of vehicles that are dimpled from our hailstorm. They never bothered to fix them. Anyway, hopefully Threadhead is safe and sound and the Pilot is fine.

Hard to believe the storms the past two days. Saw the reports about the one yesterday that wiped out that mobile home, and the "tornado" that you guys had today. Very odd for the Valley.

Great photos you guys got. Keep safe, ok?

[PrG]

Same here ... glad you made it through ... Great pics ...

Luckily the PILOT wasn't caught in the hail ... Wishing the best for all our Arizona PILOTeers ... On the bright side though it looks like you have trees already downed and ready for Christmas.

Be safe ...

PrG

[autobahn]

Wow! One of the great things I remember when we lived in AZ. Bet the Pilot did good in all that water.

[Tony]

I really do like the monsoons. It revitalizes and brings new life to the desert. I've been here since 1985 and have seen some powerful storms, but I have never seen hail this size here. Those shots of the hail were taken about an hour after they fell, so they must have been much larger.

I just watched the 10 o'clock news. An apartment complex about 1/4 mile west of us was hit really hard. Many windows broken and a few people injured by shattered glass.

The town of Tolleson, about 10 miles south of us lost a bunch of utility poles. That's where the "funnel cloud" was seen. It never touched down.

Yesterdays storm was a bad one too. A micro-burst blew through a mobile home park tearing the roof off a few and picking up one home and throwing it over a brick wall, completely destroying it.

Another part of yesterdays storm, took out several power poles in Gilbert. (35 miles East South East of me)

All in all, we did well and the Pilot was fantastic, but we were really lucky that we missed the hail.

I just hope Threadhead is okay. I'm not sure how his side of town did.