Phoenix area likely to endure more severe rainy weather Friday

PHOENIX – The monsoon storm season keeps giving to Arizona, with another round of rain expected to douse metro Phoenix as soon as Friday evening, forecasters said.

A flash flood watch for Maricopa County will last until 5 p.m. Sunday. While the chance of rain is under 50% through the weekend, what falls will be substantial, the National Weather Service in Phoenix said.

“Any weather features that is going to be coming along and kicking off additional showers and thunderstorms … [are] going to have the ability to produce very heavy rainfall in short amounts of time,” meteorologist Paul Iniquez told KTAR News 92.3 FM early Friday.

He said windy, wet weather could hit Friday anywhere from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

This week’s storms “have been able to generate 1 to 2 inches of rain in 20 or 30 minutes sometimes. We’re expecting pockets where perhaps 1, 2, or 3 inches of rain could fall pretty quick,” Iniquez said.

Chances of rain continue through Wednesday, he said.

The @NWSSPC has expanded the "Marginal" severe weather area for today. This means there is the potential for storms with strong, possibly damaging, winds to develop. Timing would be late afternoon at high elevations, late evening low elevations. Be weather aware today! #azwx pic.twitter.com/aoAUYHno1q

— NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) August 13, 2021

“And dust is always possible when you get these heavy winds moving through the desert. Seems like no matter how much rain we get, we always end up getting dust at some point,” Iniquez said.

The forecast calls for a 40% chance of thunderstorms and showers overnight and wind gusts that could reach 25 mph.

There’s a 30%-40% chance of rain Saturday but by Sunday that drops to 20%.

The weather left obvious signs around the Valley on Thursday.

The Flood Control District of Maricopa County reported during a six-hour window that ended at 9 a.m. some areas such as Cave Creek-Carefree and around Interstate 17 and Anthem Way were swamped with between 3-4 inches of rain.

Monsoon season “is quite a bit more active” than the previous two, Iniquez said.

Public utility SRP on Thursday estimated monsoon flows so far this summer at 125,000 acre-feet, well above the 103,000 acre-feet of water that flowed into the reservoirs between Jan. 1 and May 31.

An acre-foot of water covers an acre of land with one foot of water.

The power company on Thursday released water from the Granite Reef Diversion Dam into the river. That was due to runoff flowing into the Verde River, a tributary, after heavy rainfall Wednesday night in the Sycamore Creek area up north.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jim Cross and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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