As so often happens with desert storms, this one appeared quickly over the Gila Mountains with a few thunderheads and ever-increasing winds. It didn’t take long for the downpour to begin and quickly provide inches of runoff from the streets and into the washes. The cooling effect was immediate too; we quickly fell a full ten degrees in temperature and then another ten degrees within the next hour after the rain had stopped. The humidity also jumped to an oppressive 80%!
They often advise not driving through the water-filled washes and even though it might seem like mere inches, I was surprised today to see road crews out with heavy equipment scraping not only buckets of sand off the roadway, but fairly large boulders and broken limbs of trees six inches in diameter. None of that debris was visible under the raging, muddy waters as I took these pictures yesterday during the storm. In a small car like mine, a person could do serious damage to their undercarriage.
