This is about 3-4 feet of water running in the Creek after good monsoon rain. It’s pretty aggressive at this level.
But check out this same spot (below) with over 8 feet of water! In the middle of the red circle is the top of the pole of the USGS monitoring station in the Creek right below the patio at the Stamp Mill.
All of this water is from a very short period of monsoon rainfall. While it’s awe-inspiring to watch it in action, we have to be careful of timing. The main roads up to Harmony Hollow become impassable for a few hours at many points, and a few cars and trucks have been washed away by overly-confident drivers who think they can make it across.
For those of you that don’t live in Arizona (former Midwestern girl here) it sounds crazy to call desert rainstorms “monsoons” and the National Weather Service actually says:
“It is incorrect to call one single thunderstorm a “monsoon”, instead it is a large-scale weather pattern that causes these thunderstorms.”
This is the calm after the storm. It will run like this for a while before it eventually dries up.
Did I mention that this deluge of water runs across, and washes out, the Harmony Hollow driveway with every big storm?
Sorry to be repetitive but it sure is amazing to watch Mother Nature in action, and most of us Arzonians act like the sky is falling when we get just a regular rain. They might as well cancel school, because we lose our minds with any hint of rain in the air. Don’t even get me started on hail storms.
Monsoon season runs roughly from June 14 through August 30, and varies every year.
