Watch Thursday’s monsoon storm roll in on downtown Phoenix camera

PHOENIX –There was no question that Thursday’s monsoon storm was one of the most powerful of the year, but it was also beautiful to watch.

A camera mounted high atop City Hall in downtown Phoenix captured the storm as it rolled into the Valley during the afternoon rush hour.

The video timelapse showed the storm from three angles, all of which had vastly different views — and as we all know, the monsoon can drop a ton of rain one street away and leave your house relatively dry.

When looking to the north, it appeared that some brief but heavy storms cruised through the northern part of the Valley and then the sun returned.

To the south, it caught some blowing dust and a little rain along South Mountain before, again, the sun came out.

But when looking to the east — one of the areas hardest hit by the storm — the sky appeared dark and menacing. If you look closely, though, you can spot a nice rainbow.

Thursday’s storm was a big one. Multiple areas received more than 1 inch of rain, a tornado was spotted south of downtown Phoenix and a major thoroughfare, along with the Phoenix Zoo, were closed Friday so crews could clean up and repair damage.