Arizona Then and Now: Monsoon storms

Seasonal storms bring rain, high winds and walls of dust

Weldon B. Johnson
The Republic |
James Baker is helped out of his car by Rural-Metro firefighters Bob Bagwell and Jim Mack during a flood in Indian Bend Wash August 15, 1990.

Arizona native Kelly Ludlum has a lifetime of monsoon memories.

She remembers storms blowing into the Valley behind towering walls of dust. She remembers, in the days before clothes dryers were common, rushing to gather clean laundry that had been hung out to dry before a storm hit.

And she remembers expecting the phone to ring if a storm was strong.

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“My dad was a troubleshooter for APS for 45 years,” Ludlum said. “When a storm rolled in, we knew the phone would ring and he would have to climb poles.”

Ludlum’s father, Dick Clark,

was one of the men who worked to restore power when wind or lightning from monsoon storms took down power lines.

"Monsoon" is derived from the Arabic word "mausim," which means a season of the year.

In the Southwest, it refers to a time when the winds shift from a west or southwest direction to the south or southeast. The shift draws moisture from the Gulf of California. That moisture, combined with summer heat, creates volatile storms that can include blowing dust, high wind, lightning and heavy rain.

According to the National Weather Service’s monsoon safety page, storm gusts often exceed 40 mph and can top 100 mph.  Downbursts (columns of air in a shower or thunderstorm that rapidly sink toward the ground) can produce wind that rivals a tornado in terms of damage caused.

Monsoon season (June 15-Sept. 30, according to the Weather Service)  also is when the Phoenix area gets much of its rain. On average, July is the rainiest month, with an average of 1.05 inches. August isn’t far behind at 1 inch and September averages 0.64 inch. June is the driest month, with an average of 0.02 inch.

Dick Clark, an APS lineman, during a Salt River Flood in an undated photo.

Phoenix’s wettest monsoon season was in 1984 when 9.56 inches of rain fell. The wettest monsoon season in recent years was 2014 when 6.34 inches fell. Much of that came on the record-setting day of Sept. 8, when the city got 3.3 inches.