A monsoon storm fronted by a massive wall of dust bowled through the Phoenix area on the evening of Aug. 25, knocking out power to thousands, delaying flights and damaging Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
The storm moved in from the southeast, blowing across San Tan Valley just before 5 p.m. and reaching downtown Phoenix within an hour, bringing sheets of rain and howling wind illuminated by bolts of lightning.
People leaving work screamed with a mix of delight and fright as they ran out of downtown buildings into the downpour toward parking structures. The wind whipped debris across wet streets, shook street signs and downed branches over sidewalks.
A flood advisory was in effect until 9 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.
Storm causes ground stop at Phoenix Sky Harbor
A ground stop was issued at Phoenix Sky Harbor due to thunderstorms around 5:30 p.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It was lifted about 30 minutes later. The average flight delay was 15 minutes, as of 6:55 p.m.
Three flights were canceled, 104 flights were delayed and one flight was diverted as of 8 p.m., the airport’s website said.
The storms also caused leaking and other damage to the airport, Sky Harbor spokesperson Gregory E. Roybal said.
Crews were working to identify damage and roof leaks, and clean up water where it had collected in passenger areas, Roybal said.
The airport was still assessing damage and resuming operations that had been halted as of 8:50 p.m., Roybal said.
“The extreme weather impacted various areas throughout the airport, including the PHX Sky Train,” he said.
There were leaks reported in both terminals, and debris on roadways, he said.
Thousands of homes without power following storms
More than 41,000 Salt River Project customers were experiencing outages in the Phoenix area at about 7:30 p.m., according to the company’s outage map.
There were over 7,400 Arizona Public Service customers in metro Phoenix experiencing outages, according to the company’s website as of 8:40 p.m. Aug. 25.
Some Cox customers also received an outage notice in the Phoenix area around 6:35 p.m.
