Monsoon storms batter Phoenix, knock out power and halt Sky Harbor flights

Monsoon thunderstorms slammed the Phoenix metro Monday evening, sending a massive wall of dust across the Valley, knocking out power to nearly 16,000 customers and forcing a ground stop at Sky Harbor International Airport.

The dust was driven by severe thunderstorms pushing toward the Valley with wind gusts up to 50 mph as hail and continuous lightning threatened communities to the east.

The weather service issued a severe thunderstorm warning just after 6 p.m. for Maricopa and Pinal counties. Storms were moving northwest at 20 mph from Queen Valley and Florence Junction toward Apache Junction, Gold Canyon and the Superstition Mountains.

A dust storm warning is in effect until 7:45 PM MST for I-10 near Avondale–Goodyear, AZ and I-10, I-17, US-60 near Phoenix–Mesa, AZ. pic.twitter.com/zEh4AF2PLZ

— NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) July 14, 2026

Forecasters called the damage threat “considerable,” warning of harm to mobile homes, roofs and outbuildings.

A separate line of storms sat nearly stationary over the Tonto Basin farther north, producing 60 mph gusts and quarter-size hail near Roosevelt, Canyon Lake, Apache Lake and Four Peaks.

Forecasters said hail damage to vehicles was expected along with wind damage to roofs, siding and trees.

Torrential rainfall accompanied both storm clusters and raised the risk of flash flooding. The weather service urged residents to move to interior rooms on the lowest floor of a building and to avoid driving through flooded roadways.

The storms knocked out power to nearly 16,000 customers across Maricopa and Pinal counties Monday evening.

Most of the outages in the Phoenix metro began between shortly before 6:35 p.m. as the storms pushed into the East Valley.

In Pinal County, two outages tied to storm damage left more than 1,700 customers in Picacho and Kearny without electricity. Restoration times ranged from within the hour to as late as midnight.

After utility crews worked through the night, all but a few hundred SRP and APS customers in pockets across the Valley had their electricity restored as of 6 a.m. Tuesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport at 6:41 p.m. Monday due to thunderstorms, halting all inbound flights until at least 8 p.m. No flight restrictions were still in effect at Sky Harbor as of 6 a.m. Tuesday.

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