So that's what a microburst is?

Yesterday we found out exactly what a microburst is... and does.  I went to lunch with my boss.  We ate lunch outside, with a few sprinkles.  By the time we drove back to the office, a few miles away, the rain was coming down in sheets.  By the time we walked from the car into the building, you couldn't see across the parking lot.

Not too long after that, Paige called me.  She hasn't seen weather like this the decade she has lived here.  Our neighborhood got absolutely hammered.  Go a mile west or east and it just looks like a typical monsoon rolled through.  But our neighborhood looks like... a microburst, I guess.

There was hail everywhere.

The wind blew our porch furniture all over the place.

More hail, piling up against the back sliding door.

Even more hail.

Our street was sidewalk to sidewalk water, with branches and ice floating down it.

Hard to see in this picture, but there are about five palo verde trees near our park completely trashed.

By the time I drove home a few hours later, the rain had stopped, but the water was still everywhere.

Our shade sails didn't survive the storm.

Or more accurately, the post that held them up didn't.

Double 4x4s, cracked right in half.

More trees cracked.

One neighborhood has his trampoline hanging from his palm tree.  Or at least I think it is his.

Another neighbor has a tree through the wall and laying on his roof.

Trees down at the community park.

This stop sign used to be regulation height.  And have street signs on top of it.  It completely disappeared until some City of Gilbert guy put it back, albeit a few feet lower.

Not even the agave survived.  This one got shredded by the hail.

Which was still piled up under the red yucca several hours after the storm.

See that second pole from the right?  It is cracked completely through at the base, and the only thing holding it up is the power lines.  That got our entire main street shut down for the night.

But hey, at least the storm produced a nice sunset.

And I think it finally broke the back of the summer weather.  It was nice and cool today, although slightly less shady in places.