Monsoon...My Favorite Season!

Since it hardly ever rains in good 'ole Phoenix, I especially look forward to Monsoon season. The gloomy, rainy days are so relaxing. The storms make me want to curl up with a good book and eat grilled cheese and tomato soup all day...at least that was until the last batch of storms.

First of all, we had a storm that threatened to rip the roof off of our house. I may be exaggerating a little, but I took a two minutes to video tape from our back patio door. Notice around the 1:05 mark our window screen is ripped off the screws and flies across the yard! If you listen closely, just before that you will hear our neighbor's tree blow over onto the privacy fence. I actually got a little nervous. In Michigan, when the weather gets bad, we go to the basement. No basement here. I ended up hobbling over (still not able to run at this point due to the knee surgery) to the bathroom because I've heard that's one of the safest places to be in a storm. Then the storm passed, and there was a beautiful rainbow.

We then had  a tremendous hail storm a little over a week ago. I've seen pea-sized hail in Michigan, but this hail was of the mutant kind. It first started around 12:20 pm while I was at school. I was in the teacher's lounge and about to walk to my classroom when the sky suddenly decided to dump buckets of water. Everyone, teachers included, ran for cover. It then began to hail, so students who had huddled against the building for shelter were shuffled into the nearest rooms. Students and teachers around me ran to the teacher's lounge. Students were soaked since they had been outside eating lunch at the time the rain started. Eventually the hail stopped and it continued to rain. Sixth period was about to begin, so a bunch of teachers grabbed clean trash bags, made little holes for our eyes, and made a mad dash out of the teacher's lounge back to our classrooms. It was quite the spectacle. Of course, the students were just jealous of our trash bag ensembles.

While I was driving home that same day, I could see another storm creeping up behind me. Less than a mile from my house the sky let loose. This time, it started almost immediately with the hail. When I was only seconds from my house (and only driving about 20 miles per hour) I shot this quick video.

Luckily, I was able to pull in to the garage before the hail started to mutate. I was standing in the garage just watching the massive hail fall from the sky, and some exceptionally large pieces made it into the garage.

This particular piece of hail was about the size of a ping pong ball. However, just south of us there was hail measuring about 2 1/2 inches in diameter - golf ball sized!


I watched the storm from inside the garage for a bit, then I moved in to the house. I went to my favorite storm-watching spot, the patio door, and this is what I saw.

  

Is it snowing in Phoenix???

Nope. It's just hail.

The hail eventually subsided. I was sad to see it go, but glad we didn't have any major damage. Apparently downtown Glendale (exactly where my school is located) was hit the hardest by two intersecting storms. Other teachers reported having broken windshields, mirrors, and even hail that put a hole in a car's bumper! I can believe all of this because when I walked on to campus the next morning, it looked like a war zone!

Just the beginning...

Right along side of my classroom.

Monsoon season is truly my favorite season in Arizona. After the storm, the temperatures started decreasing with highs only in the 70s... Apparently I was too optimistic because the temperatures were constantly in the mid 90s all of last week. It is October for crying out loud! I guess this is what I deserve for choosing to move to the valley of the sun!