Its Raining in Phoenix!

I turned off my AC and am sitting at the kitchen table with my porch door wide open. (Yes, it is still hot here - 97 the last time I checked). The "rainstorms" here are nothing like back east in terms of volume of water - a heavy sprinkle perhaps - but the storm part is incredible. I was driving home from the library when it started in earnest and several times I had to slow down because clouds of sand and leaves were browning-out my view of the road. Its the desert equivalent of a snow storm. The sky is a deep purple, and the air is hazy with ozone, and when the lightning strikes it is not just one long beam, but a network of jagged white lines covering the whole sky.