ARIZONA MONSOON

View through the bus windshield, from the driver seat.

Beginning in mid summer, usually around the middle of July, the skies start to cloud up, and the thunderstorms start to roll in. Here at the Grand Canyon, the last few weeks have brought almost daily thunderstorm activity.

Yesterday, while driving a Blue Route Bus in the village, we had a monster cell pass through the area, and dump an enormous amount of rain, in just a few minutes. These kinds of super cells are the ones that appear in red on the Doppler radar images. While the water was dumping from the sky, there was some brief flooding, and these images are from the trailer village bus stop. This temporary river was probably a couple of inches deep, and needless to say, no one was waiting for the bus while this deluge of water was trying to find somewhere to go.

For an hour or so, this was the scene all over the park, as thunder, lightning, and lots of rain, combined to create a pretty good mess. The weather, combined with lots of wet people, was a formula for minor cases of chaos, depending on where the bus stop was. At the Visitors Center, I had a mob rush the bus in heavy rain, while I was trying to unload a disabled gentleman in a wheel chair. These kinds of scenes were playing out all along the route, as people were trying to get to their destinations, and out of the nasty weather.

After the storm had passed, the good news was that most people had given up on using the bus system, and the rest of the day was relatively calm. These kinds of storms are fairly common in Arizona, and the majority of annual rainfall totals are picked up in July & August. Speaking of August, just a few more weeks to go, then it's back to being retired! Yipeeeee!