Sports

Arizona Monsoon Wrecks College Football Stadium Before Kickoff And Floods Streets With Wacky Weather

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Arizona State Rain Storm Monsoon Weather Flooding Football
iStockphoto / © Jacob Reiner-Imagn Images

The last few days of monsoon season brought wacky weather to Tempe as Arizona State prepared to play college football at home. Heavy rain forced tailgaters to take cover from flash flooding.

The game was in jeopardy with just a few hours until kickoff.

The initial forecast presented a questionable outlook for whether the college football game could be played as scheduled. Fortunately, clear skies prevailed and it ended up being a gorgeous night for a resilient Big-12 victory for the Sun Devils.

When is ‘Monsoon Season’ in Tempe?

Tempe is nestled into the valley of the Phoenix mountains. The region is known for its desert ecosystem.

Part of that ecosystem includes the weather.

Daily temperatures typically hover between 90-95º in late September with nighttime lows between 70-75º. Some days are hotter. Some days are cooler. Obviously.

Peak monsoon season occurs from mid-June through the month of September but the most intense and active weather typically occur in July and August. The University of Arizona was forced to cancel football practice last month after Tucson got smacked by a nasty storm.

A seasonal shift in wind patterns brings increased moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean to Arizona, which often causes intense thunderstorms in the late afternoon for 30-60 minutes. This latest occurrence came out of nowhere.

Arizona State got hammered.

Kickoff between Arizona State and TCU was scheduled for 6:00 p.m. local time. Clouds started to form in the region around 2:30/3:00. Check out these photos captured by @AZphotog75!

They looked pretty ominous just 15 minutes later.

Sure enough, the skies opened up not too long thereafter. It started with some lightning and a drizzle.

And then it really started to come down.

The rain sent everybody into a frenzied panic as they ran for cover.

People making their way to Tempe for the game drove through a downpour.

The radar did not initially show any signs of stopping.

@cfbonfox

Will we be playing football tonight? 🫣 #CFB #collegefootball #ASU #arizonastatesundevils

♬ original sound – CFB on FOX

Tailgaters were forced to either take shelter or embrace the elements.

Meanwhile, the streets started to fill with water.

Even though the rain eventually died off and moved out of Tempe with time to spare, the flooding still presented an issue. This is how it looked outside of the stadium with less than two hours until kickoff:

@cfbonfox

Streets have flooded outside of Arizona State’s football stadium with 3 hours to kickoff 👀 #CFB #collegefootball #ASU

♬ original sound – CFB on FOX

Water levels eventually dropped and the streets were damp but not completely flooded as fans made their way into the game. Arizona State went on to beat TCU by three. Crisis adverted!