the hundred-year rain

Today was one for the history books.  At least here in Arizona.  The powers that be (aka the local meteorologists and other news entities) have been forecasting a big monsoon storm for the last several days.  All week it kept moving farther and farther back, and I was kind of skeptical as to how "big" it was really going to be.  This has been a very dry monsoon season this year and most of the rain that has been forecasted the last couple months hasn't really materialized.

Well, it materialized this morning!

About 2am I woke up to some thunder and lightening and soon after heard the rain.  And it kept raining.  But I went back to sleep.  When I woke up at 6am to go to the gym it was still raining!  Hard.  Thanks to all the moisture being pushed our way from hurricane Norbert.

I hesitated about going out in it, not knowing how back the roads were going to be, but I went.  They weren't too bad, as I went up the street a couple miles to the gym.  When I got back home Julia was up getting ready for work and Mom was up watching the news.  Holy cow!!

I was so thankful I didn't have to worry about driving into Phoenix to go to work!  All the freeways were underwater due to flash flooding.  It was crazy out there!  

Last night at dinner Dad made a comment about how low the water level in the pool was and mentioned needing to fill it up.  Needless to say, after this morning there is no longer a need to!  The back porch became a lake, but no water came into the house, thankfully.  We only ended up with a small area of the back porch roof that had some leaking/water damage, and my leather chair which has been sitting out on the back porch as there is nowhere else for it to live right now, sustained some water damage.  But, those are both minor things compared with what a lot of other people are dealing with after today's storm.  

The rain cleared up about 11am.  It stayed kind of overcast for another hour or so, but then cleared up.  There was a forecast of more rain this afternoon and evening, but so far we haven't seen anymore here.  

Today was the wettest day in Phoenix on record.  Ever.  On average we get 2.71" during the monsoon season (June, July, August) every year.  Just today alone the airport reported 3.78"!  Chandler got over 5" and Mesa was over 4.5".  Here at the house we got at least 4" because that's how much the pool water level rose!  Crazy!  

I drove to and from work without any issues, thankfully.  Gary, one of the massage therapists that works at my office wasn't so lucky.  His car got flooded and stalled out on him on his way in today.  A lot of school around the Phoenix metro area closed today, or had delayed starts.  My biology class was cancelled this evening.

I'm so thankful for the rain!  We needed it so badly.  I know lots of people are dealing with the after affects of all the water, but it's hard to complain about something that is such a blessing.