Storms bring flooding, downed power lines and car accidents to Phoenix area

Saturday's thunderstorms brought heavy rainfall, high winds and dust storms, causing floods and water rescues in the Phoenix area.

Gabriel Lojero, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix, said the monsoon storm on Saturday was one of the most active ones they have seen this year.

"These storms that moved across the Phoenix area we7tre pretty vigorous, creating flooding as well as wind damage," Lojero said.

Some areas north of Phoenix along Interstate 17 received between 1 to 2 inches of rain, according to Lojero. Most of the rain fell in a span of about 30 minutes to one hour, which is a lot of rain in a short amount of time for an urban area, Lojero said. This led to the flooding that many residents in the north Valley witnessed.

The Cave Creek wash also saw a significant rise of its water levels during the storms, according to Lojero.

The Phoenix Fire Department responded to four water rescues in the north Valley related to the storms, according to Captain Scott Douglas, a spokesperson for the department. Two of those rescues required technical assistance to evacuate people from their vehicles which were partially submerged in water.

"It is unknown for sure why they became stuck but I assumed they tried driving through moving water," Douglas said in an emailed statement.

Phoenix firefighters also responded to calls about flooding, downed power lines and car accidents related to the storm, according to Douglas.

The Maricopa County Elections Department closed the vote center at 39 East Jackson Street in Phoenix due to flooding, according to a Tweet from the department. They were working to determine if the center could open on Monday or if they had to find a different place, the tweet said.

On Sunday, according to Megan Gilbertson, a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Elections Department, the department worked with the facility owners and found another room in the same building to reopen the Vote Center as scheduled on Monday and Tuesday.

One person uploaded a video showing flooding on West Elm Street near Seventh Avenue. Another video shows cars traveling in flooded roads and splashing water.

Wind speeds higher than 60 mph were recorded at the Deer Valley Airport, which Lojero said coincides with the fallen trees seen in that area.

The high wind speeds could be seen in the video of another resident who recorded trees and heavy rain.

Videos of rain, flooding, storm damage

A dust storm that originated in Pinal County made its way into the Phoenix area. Lojero said a dust storm's affect on the air quality could become hazardous for drivers due to visibility reduction.

The latest storms have increased moisture and led to cooler than normal temperatures, Lojero said. However, temperatures are expected to increase to about 106 degrees this upcoming week.

Storm activity is expected to decrease with 20% to 30% storm chances in the Phoenix area on Sunday, according to Lojero.

"The coverage is going to be not nearly as much as what we saw yesterday," Lojero said. "There could be some isolated thunderstorms today (Sunday) in the Phoenix area in the evening but it's not going to be as bad as what we saw last night."

Through Wednesday, the storm chances in the lower deserts are expected to be about 20% and it looks like the activity will be confined to the higher terrains, Lojero said. On Thursday, there is a probability that activity will increase again.

"So we're going to get a brief break and then we're going to get back into the active pattern once again as we get through the second half of the week and into the weekend," Lojero said.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix-area storms bring flooding, downed power lines, car accidents