Surprise Storms Hit Phoenix

Surprise Storms Hit Phoenix

A massive thunderstorm approaches Downtown Phoenix, as viewed from my roof.

For a weather nerd; lightning, thunder and hail is a great way to start the day! Clouds began bubbling around 9AM and quickly led to towering thunderstorms across the Valley. The huge storms came as a surprise because they were not mentioned in last night’s forecasts. Below is a time-lapse of the storms over the Tempe/Mesa area.

Small hail was reported with these storms as well. Here’s a clip taken by Mike Olbinski while near pea-sized hail was falling in North Phoenix.

Late last night, the National Weather Service in Phoenix mentioned the chance of some thunder, partially due to cold air aloft creating instability; however, they considered the chance too low to include in the forecast.

“Previous storm events this winter have had an isolated few lightning strikes with similar CAPE (instability) forecasts, so… we can’t rule out some rumbles out there” -AJ

An upper level “dip” in the atmosphere moved over us last night. This area of low pressure combined with the cold air and strong winds aloft, and some morning sun that warmed up the surface led to the potent storms.

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One thought on “Surprise Storms Hit Phoenix

  1. Awesome stuff! There are thunderstorms all over the country right now… Seattle had thundersnow (check out the video of lightning striking the Space Needle!) and there are some tornadic storms rolling through the Midwest this evening.

    Really like the timelapse too… that’s very cool.

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