Wake and Soak: Early Morning Thunderstorm Brings Heavy Rain to Valley

We don't know about you, but we often get our best sleep in the dark hours just before dawn. We're pretty sure you heard what was going on at about 4:30 this morning if you live in the central Valley area. Brilliant flashes of light. Startling cracks of thunder...

By Ray Stern

July 21, 2009

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We don't know about you, but we often get our best sleep in the dark hours just before dawn. We're pretty sure you heard what was going on at about 4:30 this morning if you live in the central Valley area. Brilliant flashes of light. Startling cracks of thunder. And the wonderful pattering of rain, from heavy downpours to light sprinkling.

The ASU area got soaked with the most rain in the last six hours -- 1.14 inches, according to the latest rainfall totals by the Maricopa County Flood Control District. But the chart shows many areas that received in the ballpark of half an inch.

The storm followed a dry monsoon event Monday evening that brought a second night's dust storm. Gusty winds knocked out power in west Phoenix and parts of the east Valley. About 7,300 homes went without electricity -- and that was before this morning's squall.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.