Ha! I appreciate the concern. (Destiny)

by Oholiab , Monday, August 13, 2018, 12:10 (2375 days ago) @ Malagate

Because the last thing we heard was "Is that our roof or the neighbor's roof?" And then moments later you guys were offline.

We survived, and our roof is intact. Our neighbors lost more than a few shingles that ended up in our yard.

We live in the Phoenix metro area and every summer we have monsoon season - officially from July 15 to September 15. Phoenix sits in a “valley” about 100some miles long and 50some miles wide. As desert temperatures heat up in the valley during the day, it creates a dome of dry, hot air over the valley. Cooler moist air builds up outside the valley because it can’t penetrate the dome. Eventually though, something has to give, and it generally gives violently in the form of dust storms, followed by thunderstorms and rain. These monsoons are very fast moving storms lasting a half hour to an hour, but dumping torrential amounts of rain in that span of time.

Consider that on average the Valley gets 7” of rain PER YEAR. On Wednesday we had a monsoon that dumped 3” in about a half hour. Last night was probably 2” in the same span of time. Three hours after it rains that much, everything is dry again.

I suppose none of you really wanted a lesson in local meteorology, but there you have it. Power was off for three hours, and other than missing out on gaming with you fine folks, we are none the worse.