The overcast skies provided a welcome relief on Tuesday morning. With temperatures still over 100 degrees most of this past week, I started wondering when the Arizona summer would start winding down. I'd been hearing fantastical stories from friends and family in other parts of the country about the leaves changing colors and sweaters coming out at night. Not here in Phoenix. The A/C was still on high with no relief in sight. But the little bit of rain on Monday turned into the great storm of Tuesday.

It started with a bit of sprinkling. Nothing much to speak of. Then the wind started. And the rain fell harder. In the Phoenix store, we have a number of skylights throughout the sales floor and back room. Within a minute, the sound of hail pellets drowned out the overhead music and the storm was in full effect.

Customers and employees alike gathered at the front of the store to watch nickel sized hail blowing in and covering everything in sight. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. This Phoenix “snow” piled up on windshields, the sidewalk, and all along our storefront. We even had to shovel “snow” away from the back doors in order to open them.

The second wave came a few hours later, with more hail and eventually a beautiful double rainbow. With the parking lot, streets, and freeway flooded, the commute home begged to be horrible, so I turned off the radio, rolled down the window, and drove home with the excitement of autumn just around the corner.