Pictured above is the departure of the storm that rattled metropolitan Phoenix in late September. I captured the iPhone image from an upper floor of the parking garage at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport's Terminal Four.
At the horizon in the center is a rain shaft. A bank of low-hanging clouds obscures the mountains to the left. At the far right is part of the downtown Phoenix skyline.
Our flight that day into Phoenix from Seattle was diverted to Tucson, where we waited a couple hours for the powerful weather system to move out of metro Phoenix. Our plane was on final approach into Phoenix when the pilot was ordered to fly on to Tucson.
We learned later that our flight was one of several diverted that day from Phoenix. When we landed in Tucson, paramedics boarded to treat an elderly man complaining of chest pains.
After the storm passed, we returned to Phoenix and landed about seven hours after leaving Seattle. The Phoenix-Seattle flight usually lasts less than three hours.