More severe storms on 21 July 2007

Prepared at 8 PM MST Sunday July 22, 2007

Although Friday the 21st of July was a "down" day in the local Tucson metro region, intense storms returned on Saturday July 21st late in the evening (good Friday call by Pat Holbrook!). Severe storms with heavy rains and downbursts moved in from the E to NE, producing very heavy rains of more than an inch and downburst winds over much of the metro area. Except of course here at the house, where we had mostly winds and lightning and thunder followed by very light rains after midnight.

A measured gust of 56 mph occured at DM AFB, and TUS reported a gust in the 40's. Most of the downburst damage occured on the east and south sides of the metro area. I drove down Grant and Kolb this morning and observed that there were a number of trees down in a large Target parking lot at Kolb and Grant, with sctattered trees and limbs down at least to south of Kolb and 22nd - about four miles- DM is about another 2 miles to the south, so I suspect that there was more wind damage south of where I drove.

Newspaper reports indicate that power poles were downed in the south metro area just north of the Tucson airport and that power lines were downed in the area around Alvernon and I-10, a few miles ENE of the airport.

I was able to get a photo of this storm as it was moving into the metro area. I took this shot looking about due east from the front of my house at about 7:15 pm MST.