Sufficient moisture combined with daytime heating resulted in moderate instability, especially across southwest Arizona with SPC mesoanalysis showing MLCAPE of 1000 J/KG and DCAPE of 2000 J/KG. This resulted in the development of strong to locally severe isolated thunderstorms across portions of Yuma and La Paz counties, with strong downburst winds and dense blowing dust being the main hazards.
Every event with a place to put it; 2 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS PSR wrote it up.
Sufficient moisture combined with daytime heating resulted in moderate instability, especially across southwest Arizona with SPC mesoanalysis showing MLCAPE of 1000 J/KG and DCAPE of 2000 J/KG. This resulted in the development of strong to locally severe isolated thunderstorms across portions of Yuma and La Paz counties, with strong downburst winds and dense blowing dust being the main hazards. There was also a popular social media photo of a possible landspout tornado in the Buckeye area. No damages or injuries were reported.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Phoenix, AZ wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jun 25, 5:05 PM MST, 13 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Phoenix AZ 505 PM MST Sat Jun 25 2022 .UPDATE...Updated 00z Aviation Discussion .SYNOPSIS... With sufficient moisture in place, shower and thunderstorm opportunities will persist over much of the region with better chances entering the picture Sunday and Monday. Storms will have the potential to produce frequent lightning, brief heavy downpours, gusty winds, and localized blowing dust. Temperatures will remain seasonally warm, albeit still near average with lower elevation afternoon highs still regularly eclipsing 100 degrees. && .DISCUSSION... Objective analysis shows a stable pattern configuration across the Conus with expansive subtropical ridging aligned over the entire southern tier of states. With the central H5 positive height anomaly situated over the lower Mississippi River Valley, a westward extension of the ridge axis was situated along the Arizona international border. Along this western periphery, satellite imagery clearly depicts a nearly stationary MCV spinning over far SE Arizona with residual moisture encompassing the majority of the circulation. The larger synoptic pattern next week will generally feature retrogression in the lower latitudes with more pronounced high pressure and more frequent subsidence migrating westward towards the SW Conus, however it will be these convectively enhanced, sub-synoptic features and interactions similar to this mornings MCV that will largely dictate daily storm potential and evolution. The aforementioned SE Arizona MCV should meander along the international border through this evening leading to forced ascent in advance of the circulation center through far southern AZ. Entrained midlevel moisture rotating across the eastern CWA this morning has temporarily restricted instability growth while bolstering CinH. While this may not be the case the entire day as clouds erode, the best instability corridor and prime area for convective initiation as supported by a vast majority of CAMs aligns from western Pima County through southern Maricopa and central Yuma and La Paz counties. This includes traditional initiation points such as Table Top Wilderness and the Kofa mountains. Objective analysis already indicates MLCApe nearing 1000 J/kg while DCape exceeds 2000 J/kg suggesting any storms forming in this region later will easily have the potential for strong, gusty winds and localized blowing dust impacts. Around the Phoenix metro, the convective environment does not appear as impressive with boundary layer mixing ratios still hovering around 8-9 g/kg. While this does not completely preclude thunderstorm development, much like last evening, multiple colliding outflow boundaries will be needed to further moisten and dislodge the boundary layer from a capped scenario. HREF membership seems in quite good agreement depicting a better defined vorticity center propagating north out of Sonora Sunday afternoon acting upon an unstable, and only marginally capped environment. The prospect for multiple, deeper outflows capable of triggering deep convection at lower elevations increases markedly as mixing ratios edge towards 10 g/kg. Not surprisingly, NBM POPs are notably higher across much of Arizona Sunday evening solidly in a 20- 50% range, even over lower elevations. The primary thunderstorm impacts will remain similar to the past couple days (i.e. lightning, gusty outflow winds, and blowing dust) given a similar thermodynamic structure, just with likely more extensive coverage. Daily details with respect to thunderstorm formation and coverage much of next week will be driven by mesoscale influences versus any larger scale forcing mechanisms. As previously mentioned, retrogression of the high pressure center will bring the anti- cyclone center into the Southwest region during the middle/end of the week, however the vast majority of ensembles keep H5 heights tempered near 594dm (quite typical for late June) such that the high pressure induced subsidence should not be the main influence in determining convective formation and coverage. One key may be the ultimate location of the pressure ridge: some ensembles build the ridge into northern AZ which becomes a convectively favorable deep easterly flow over much of the forecast area while other ensemble members focus the ridge over northern Mexico/southern Arizona which would be less convectively encouraging. Regardless of the exact position, the fact is moisture depth and magnitude have already become established over the region such that there shouldn't be any day completely devoid of storms (at least until moisture is more thoroughly scoured from the area). Rather, the forecast challenge any given day will hinge on whether storms remain isolated over mountains or whether salient mesoscale feature support and/or force convective sustenance into lower elevations. Thus, the official forecast much of the week is nearly a persistence forecast with model trends inching towards lesser storm coverage and impacts late in the week. && .AVIATION...Updated at 0005Z. South-Central Arizona including KPHX, KIWA, KSDL, and KDVT: The main weather concern into this evening remains to be gusty outflow winds and abrupt wind shifts from distant thunderstorms that have developed to the north and east of Phoenix. Right now it appears that this outflow will reach the terminals around 00Z. Wind gusts as high as 30-35kts are indicated at the current time on 88-D radar imagery. Given the direction the outflow is coming from, blowing dust should not be a significant problem, but cannot rule out visibilities briefly falling to around 3-5SM. There remains about a 20% chance of shower or thunderstorms affecting the terminals. Therefore, confidence is low to include anything more than VCSH in the TAFs at this time. Once the outflow boundaries/convective activity pass through the area by mid- evening, winds will predominate from an easterly direction thru the rest of the night and thru much of Sunday. A more active day appears to be on tap for Sunday as moisture increases over the region. Current thinking is that showers/t-storms will begin to move into the Phx area during the early evening hours with a brief period of southwesterly winds becoming easterly as the storms move into the region. Right now, looking at about a 70% chance of winds over 35 kts and 10-15% chance of winds of 50 kts or great and a 30-40% chance of thunderstorms impacting one or more of the terminals. Southeast California/Southwest Arizona including KIPL and KBLH: Mostly quiet weather will exist through Saturday evening under clear skies At KIPL, southeasterly winds to become westerly sundowner winds of around 10 kts through the evening hours, switching to light southeasterly winds overnight and thru Sunday. At KBLH, southerly winds of around 10 kts are expected through the period. && .FIRE WEATHER... Moisture will remain entrenched across most districts through much of next week with the greatest afternoon thunderstorm and wetting rain chances focused over higher terrain locations north and east of Phoenix. However, even lower desert communities may occasionally experience wetting rainfall at times - more likely early in the week. Minimum afternoon humidity levels will generally fall in a 15- 30% range with somewhat lower values in far western districts. Overnight recovery will be poor to fair in lower elevations (20-40%) and good over eastern district high terrain locations (40-70%). Aside from occasional late afternoon/early evening thunderstorm downburst and/or outflow winds, winds should not be a significant impact. && .PSR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... AZ...None. CA...None. && DISCUSSION...18 AVIATION...Hodges/Lojero FIRE WEATHER...18
Special Weather Statement
National Weather Service Phoenix AZ
204 PM MST Sat Jun 25 2022
AZZ533-252145-
Central La Paz AZ-
204 PM MST Sat Jun 25 2022
...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of central La Paz
County through 245 PM MST...
At 203 PM MST, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm 9
miles southeast of Brenda, or 45 miles southeast of Parker, moving
east at 15 mph.
HAZARD...Wind gusts up to 50 mph and penny size hail.
SOURCE...Radar indicated.
IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around
unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is
possible.
This storm will remain over mainly rural areas of central La Paz
County.
This includes the following highways...
AZ Interstate 10 between mile markers 33 and 50.
US Highway 60 between mile markers 34 and 41, and between mile
markers 48 and 50.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.
&&
LAT...LON 3349 11398 3368 11398 3373 11368 3344 11368
TIME...MOT...LOC 2103Z 267DEG 11KT 3360 11383
MAX HAIL SIZE...0.75 IN
MAX WIND GUST...50 MPH
DHSpecial Weather Statement
National Weather Service Phoenix AZ
250 PM MST Sat Jun 25 2022
AZZ531-533-252230-
Kofa AZ-Central La Paz AZ-
250 PM MST Sat Jun 25 2022
...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of central La Paz and
northern Yuma Counties through 330 PM MST...
At 249 PM MST, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm near
Brenda, or 41 miles southeast of Parker, moving east at 5 mph.
HAZARD...Wind gusts up to 50 mph.
SOURCE...Radar indicated.
IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around
unsecured objects.
Locations impacted include...
Kofa Wildlife Refuge, Vicksburg, Brenda, Vicksburg Junction and
Bouse.
This includes the following highways...
AZ Interstate 10 between mile markers 30 and 49.
US Highway 60 between mile markers 31 and 48.
AZ Route 72 between mile markers 28 and 48.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.
Torrential rainfall is also occurring with this storm and may lead to
localized flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded
roadways.
Frequent cloud to ground lightning is occurring with this storm.
Lightning can strike 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. Seek a safe
shelter inside a building or vehicle.
&&
LAT...LON 3332 11402 3391 11406 3400 11379 3335 11362
TIME...MOT...LOC 2149Z 256DEG 6KT 3362 11390
MAX HAIL SIZE...0.00 IN
MAX WIND GUST...50 MPH
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</html>The Phoenix radar (KIWA), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 03:00 UTC.
2 dust storm, 1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Visibility of near 1000 feet in blowing dust from thunderstorm outflow reported near Tartron. No accidents or injuries were reported.
Visibility of 1/4 mile in blowing dust from thunderstorm outflow on I-8 near Wellton. No accidents or injuries were reported.
Mesonet weather station west northwest of Palm Canyon reported a 59 mph wind gust.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Arizona in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Arizona, June 2022
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1027980, 1027977, 1027984.