Thunderstorm hits Yuma County

Yumans Lou Ann and Fred Romley said winds from a heavy thunderstorm that pounded parts of Yuma County Wednesday afternoon knocked down one of the two huge trees in their front yard.

"We lost a huge, huge tree. The wind uprooted it like a little toothpick," said Lou Ann Romley, who lives in the 3300 block of 15th Avenue, in The Dunes subdivision. "I have never seen anything like it before. I'm just heartbroken because it shaded my house just beautifully."

The Romleys said they were having coffee at their kitchen table, which has a window facing the street in front of their home, shortly after the storm began, when the wind really picked up and the rain started coming down hard and in big drops.

"Although I have never been in one, I liken it to what it would be like in a hurricane," Lou Ann Romley said. "I had let our dogs out before the storm and was standing on my back porch when I noticed this cloud. It was huge and so gray that it was almost black."

She said she and her husband were both looking right at the tree when it suddenly fell over.

"It just sort of toppled over very quietly. When it first started raining, I thought how nice it was."

As far as the Romleys could tell, no other homes in their area were damaged by the storm.

The same thunderstorm dumped nearly two inches of rain, caused localized flooding in some areas and soaked residents who were unfortunate enough to get caught in the downpour.

Doug Green, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix, said the storms are being caused by cooler upper air interacting with lower wet unstable and warmer air in the area.

"You had one storm already and there is a potential for more," Green said at about 2 p.m. "There are still some some storm cells developing to the south of Yuma."

A National Weather Service thunderstorm warning for west-central Yuma County and southeastern Imperial County expired at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, but a severe thunderstorm watch remained in effect until 7 p.m.

According to the NWS Web site, Doppler radar continued to indicate a severe thunderstorm capable of producing nickel-size hail and damaging winds in excess of 60 mph.

"The strongest storm potential is centered along and east of the Colorado River," Green said. "Some of them could produce hail and high winds."

Arizona Public Service spokeswoman Donna Phipps said at the peak of the storm, between 2,500 and 3,000 customers were without power, but as of 2:15 p.m. that number was down to about 1,000.

Phipps reported that a wire was knocked down at the Laguna Substation, which caused the north half of Somerton to lose power.

Other power disruption included two poles and a wire down on County 15th Street between Avenues C and D, lines down at County 20th, as well as poles reported down on South Avenue A.

There was also a report of power outages on the Cocopah Reservation at County 18th Street and Avenue D and in the north end of the city of Yuma.

Russell Coil, located at 3860 S. Arizona Ave., also lost power, causing the plant to close for the remainder of Wednesday and send its 300 employees home. Phipps said its power has since been restored.

According to city of Yuma spokesman Dave Nash, winds from the storm knocked down fencing along 32nd Street at the Arroyo Dunes Golf Course and the city had to restrict one eastbound lane of traffic while it was repaired.

Somerton/Cocopah Fire Department spokesman Robby Rodriguez reported firefighters were going on numerous calls, which all ended up being false alarms.

According to the weather station at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, the storm began at 1:01 p.m. and lasted approximately 46 minutes before moving out of the area to the northeast.

"The storm was confined to the Yuma County area. It was one big thunderstorm from a very big cloud," said Cpl. Bryan Weintgart. "It hit us and moved through."

Weintgart said peak wind gusts during the storm were recorded at speeds up to 43 mph and 1.6 inches of rain fell in the Yuma area.

"There is a good chance we could experience more thunderstorms later this (Wednesday) afternoon and evening," Weintgart added.

The upper cooler air that caused Wednesday's thunderstorm originated in California and moved into the area. The front left the area in a northerly direction moving at 17 mph, according to Weintgart.

According to the NWS, isolated thundershowers were expected to continue to move through the region throughout Wednesday afternoon, which could result in more intense storms that could cause high winds and small hail.

Meteorologist Ken Clark of AccuWeather added that there was another storm cell developing about 40 or 50 miles south of Yuma that could spawn another thunderstorm later Wednesday afternoon or evening.

He did say, however, that the cooler air that had moved into the area on Wednesday could have stabilized the air, which may prevent other storms from forming.

Clark went on to explain there could be more thunderstorms today because the cool air that came into the area on Wednesday will have moved out of the area, allowing the air to warm back up.

He said more upper cooler air will be moving into the area again today and that could spark more thunderstorms.

A late evening storm Tuesday also swept through the communities of Quartzsite and Vicksburg upriver from Yuma. It left 15 downed 69-kilovolt poles in its wake, as well as isolated damage to the distribution system across the Quartzsite, Vicksburg and Bouse areas.

APS offered dry ice to customers during the outage, distributing dry ice at the Zips Gas Station in Vicksburg and the Shell station in Quartzsite.

The Shell station ran out of dry ice due to customer demand, but more dry ice was sent and expected to have been available by 1 p.m.

APS crews are on the scene making repairs, and power was expected to be restored to all customers by late Wednesday afternoon.

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James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.