Monsoon storms, though destructive, can have positive benefits
This monsoon season has brought more rain than what people have seen in decades.
"There's just tons of damage," said one person. "It's just unbelievable this year."
During these past few weeks, numerous residents, especially homeowners, have noticed the storm's power.
"I'd say worse than normal," said another person. "Usually, you'd get a storm and it'd take a couple of shingles off here and there, but not like this."
The monsoon storms, however, are leaving behind some positive benefits. Officials with Salt River Project say we are already seeing 50% more rain in 2018 than usual, and this, in many ways, is a good thing. For one, they have had less water to deliver from the Salt Water dams in the past week or so.
Jaret Rogers with the National Weather Service agrees.
"It's not typical to have night after night of thunderstorms like we've experienced," said Rogers.
In fact, in terms of precipitation, Rogers says the amount of rain we're seeing is almost record-breaking.
"We've been in a very active period up until this point in the monsoon," said Rogers. "We're the second wettest overall since 1990 in the entire Phoenix area."
According to the SRP, the rain has caused only a little runoff into the reservoirs, except for brief minor flash floods. Despite the destruction it's caused, there are a lot of benefits.
"You can see clouds developing in the southeast, near Tuscon which is right there," said Rogers.
The heavy rains have reduced the risk of wildfires, replenished the watersheds, brought moisture to our dry soils, and reduced the demand for water in the usually desert dry Phoenix area.
"We've got at least a couple more weeks of typical, more active period of the monsoon. For tonight even, it looks like we can be fairly active into tomorrow," said Rogers
NWS officials say the height of the monsoon season isn't quite over until the end of August. After that, things should slowly taper off. The monsoon season doesn't officially end until September.