Mesa Storm

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My first storm chase of the 2014 season is in the books with this Mesa storm. The chase was not long but I did manage a few photos over north Mesa AZ. 

Last week we had a significant storm system roll through Arizona. It brought much needed rain to the Grand Canyon State. Something we were all very thankful for as it had been over 70 days since we last had noticeable rainfall in the Phoenix area.

The highlight of this system (and something I missed, grrr) was an EF0 tornado over Mesa. Okay so calling it a tornado might be a stretch but the National Weather Service classified it as such. I’m sure the midwesterners were laughing to no end over it. Nonetheless it was a big deal for us here in AZ.

I was only able to chase for about an hour due to family commitments. Darn kids are always getting in the way. 🙂 The system above and below chased me across north Phoenix until I was able to get south of it. The rain was incredible and pretty much nuked any photo ops for miles. After dropping south I was able to get a few shots of what remained of this Mesa storm.

Even though it was short lived this chase fired me up for the upcoming Monsoon season. I’m so looking forward to this summer.