A monsoon swept through parts of Arizona Tuesday night, flooding Phoenix and unleashing winds that downed power lines and flipped planes on their sides.
The intense rains came three days after Phoenix hit a new heat record, with the temperature reaching 110F on Saturday – reaching that mark for 54 days this year.
Tuesday’s monsoon didn’t bring large amounts of rain — as of 8 a.m. Wednesday, Horseshoe Lake had recorded 2.32 inches in the past 24 hours, while a location in Mesa had recorded 2.13 inches – but it fell in a short time, flooding the Arizonians.
Videos shared on social media showed downed power lines, fallen trees and people sheltering from the storm.
At the peak of the outages, more than 32,000 electric customers were without power Tuesday evening.
A palm tree toppled in Phoenix Tuesday evening.
Wild storms battered Arizona Tuesday night, bringing strong winds
A plane is shown upside down on its roof at Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona.
A helicopter company facility was damaged Tuesday in Mesa, Arizona.
At the Falcon Field airstrip in Mesa, more than an inch of rain fell, but planes overturned and buildings were destroyed after the storm passed.
A person shared a video on social media showing a palm tree uprooted and falling on parked cars.
No one was injured during the storm, but flash flood warnings were issued overnight.
Some roads near Roosevelt Lake remained closed Wednesday morning.
The heavy rains came as Americans living on the East Coast anxiously monitored the path of Hurricane Lee.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center predicted the storm would reach northern Maine by mid-afternoon on Saturday, before turning east and heading toward Canada’s Maritimes – the three northernmost provinces. east of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. .
The rains in Arizona came after a summer of scorching heat in the Southwest.
Globally, last month was the hottest August on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Scientists attribute human-caused climate change to a further surge in the natural El Nino phenomenon, which is a temporary warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean that alters the weather across the world.
As of Saturday, Phoenix recorded 104 days this year with temperatures above 100 F, said Matt Salerno, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
This matches the average of 111 triple-digit days each year between 1991 and 2020.
Dozens of people cool off in the waters of Oak Creek in Sedona, Arizona at Slide Rock State Park.
The sun silhouettes the air traffic control tower at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and Arizona’s most populous county, also appears headed for an annual record for heat-related deaths.
County public health officials have confirmed 194 heat-related deaths this year as of September 2.
Another 351 cases are under investigation.
There were 425 heat-related deaths last year.
Fire EMT personnel assist a man who collapsed during a 27-day heat wave with temperatures exceeding 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
Earth experienced the hottest summer on record in the Northern Hemisphere, with a record-breaking August and a season of brutal, deadly temperatures, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
August was about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than pre-industrial averages.
That’s the threshold the world is trying not to cross, even though scientists are more concerned about temperatures rising over decades, not just a slight rise over one month.
The world’s oceans – more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface – were the hottest on record, near 69.8 F, and reached high temperatures for three months in a row, the WMO and Copernicus said .
“The dog days of summer don’t just bark, they bite,” said Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general.
“Climate degradation has begun. »
