Monsoon Season

As I listen to the rolling thunder and distant crackling of lightening, I'm a little worried about Greg because he's at a softball game...'out there'. It's 'Monsoon Season' in Arizona.  I drove home just as the storm started to roll in - heavy wind gusts kicking up dust so thick I could barely see the road.  As I sit in the quiet of our house, I can hear the wind whipping around our house, wreaking havoc in yards as outdoor objects fly aimlessly around.

You may not live in an area where you experience Monsoon Season so here's a little brush up on what it is and what it looks like.

An explanation I found online:

During the monsoon, or summer thunderstorm season, Arizona experiences more severe weather than many other states. On rare occasion, a severe storm may spawn a tornado. More often, high winds, dust and severe downpours resulting in flash floods are common monsoon occurrences.

Here is a video of a 5 mile wide, 70mph dust storm that came in earlier this week:




Here's a time lapse of the same storm on July 5th 2011:


The Phoenix Haboob of July 5th, 2011 from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.


Freaky, right? Scary too.