Thunderstorm Wind — Maricopa, Arizona

2024-07-24 · near Phoenix Farm Aero Ar, Maricopa, Arizona

Event narrative

Large warehouse facility located in the area of West Van Buren Street and North 47th Avenue in Phoenix collapsed with multiple walls and portion of roof missing. A person was trapped underneath the rubble and found deceased approximately 2.5 days later by a search and rescue operations team. Peak wind gust estimated by doppler radar was upwards of 75 mph.

Wider weather episode

Scattered to numerous thunderstorms developed across eastern and southeastern AZ during the afternoon hours. Deep and colliding outflows sparked new development across the lower deserts of south-central AZ during the early evening hours, including several thunderstorm clusters developing over the Phoenix metro area and producing strong to severe downburst winds. The environment that these thunderstorms developed under was characterized by MLCAPE values of over 1000 J/KG with DCAPE values in excess of 1500 J/KG, which were favorable parameters for severe downburst winds.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.4536, -112.1642)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1202318. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.