HikeArizona.COM

The endless chatter of weather.

Sky Harbor just reported .76" of rainfall in 11 minutes.

Been some pretty exciting driving this week. Spent Sunday night (9/21) at Bartlett Lake. Woke up to really gray skies that were getting ominously blacker by the minute. Decided it was time to leave and although it had rained a bit overnight, it wasn't raining at the Horseshoe turnoff when I got there. But apparently it had been raining everywhere else around there in torrents. I barely made it out. Bartlett Dam road was a real mess and every wash was flashing. Tons of county trucks and front loaders on the sides of the road, but they hadn't closed anything. It was a bit sketchy. If I had waited just a bit longer to leave, I'm pretty sure I would have just been stuck there until things subsided. Cave Creek Road was down to one lane, as the other lane was a river. Got up on the Mogollon Rim at Woods Canyon that afternoon and I guess I missed the 24 hour rain up there by just a couple of hours.

Fast forward to today, the rain started up on the rim last night and never stopped. Got up and drove down this morning and it was a tough drive too. Drove through quite a few torrential downpours, got hailed on in Payson and more torrential rain all the way down to the valley. On the Beeline, just south of Fountain Hills, traffic slowed tojust 10 MPH as visibility went down to 20 feet. it seemed like I was barely ahead of the storm when I finally got into town. Going thru South Scottsdale and across the Buttes into Phoenix was pretty intense. I ran into major street flooding up until I got past Indian School on 44th headed to Paradise Valley. Haven't seen this kind of rain and flooding in a long time here in town. Scottsdale had 2.39" as of 4:00pm and it rained more after that. My friend was stuck at Sky Harbor most of the day trying to get back east. The Airport had a Ground Stop until at least 6:00 P.M.

Wild Weather. And as nice as this rain is, getting it all at once like this doesn't do the desert/forest much good. It comes down so hard and fast, it just runs off and the vegetation doesn't get the benefit of it soaking in.

Over two inches of rain at my home in Payson, quite the Thunder storm the past two nights after 2 am. Lot of Lightning SE of Payson but the Thunderstorm North of Payson was quite the rumbler.

Highest rain day in Phoenix in 7 years apparently and took us from the 2nd or 3rd driest year ever to 'average'. Like said above though, not the most useful way to get it. Got 1.8" at my house
https://www.azfamily.com/2025/09/26/wet ... out-power/

Sadly apparently 3 people died in the Globe Miami flooding with SAR on site; the Mayor is declaring a state of emergency there.