Severe thunderstorms roared into the Phoenix area late Tuesday afternoon, drenching some parts of the Valley and creating dangerous conditions for evening commuters.

So much rainfall had fallen in a short span of time — up to 2 inches in one hour in central Phoenix — that the National Weather Service was referring to the storm as a 100-year event, meaning that amount of rainfall has a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year, in a specific location.

Authorities urged Valley residents to avoid driving during the storm, as the rainfall had created headaches for motorists on freeways and surface streets.

Arizona Department of Transportation closed Interstate 17 in both directions at Indian School Road due to flooding at 5:30 p.m. Southbound lanes had reopened by 10 p.m., and the northbound portion of I-17 followed suit soon after. Nearly 3 inches of rain had fallen there, according to county rainfall data.

The interchange linking westbound Interstate 10 to northbound State Route 51 was flooded and closed for more than four hours. It reopened at about 10:45 p.m.


And weather-related activity in the East Valley forced officials to shut down several stretches of roadway Tuesday night. In Scottsdale, flooding closed Osborn Road at Miller Road, and downed power lines obstructed westbound Shea Boulevard between 136th and 142nd streets. Flooding also closed Hunt Highway between Gilbert and Lindsay roads in south Chandler.

Fire crews fielded multiple requests for water rescue. Firefighters attended to motorists who got stuck in floodwater at I-17 and Indian School Road and near 36th Avenue and Bethany Home Road. A rescue crew also waded out to escort a driver from a vehicle stuck in a flooded section of road at 24th Street and Esplanade Lane, near Biltmore Fashion Park mall.