The Story:
After 143 days without measurable rain (the all time record dry spell), Mesa, Arizona received 2.56 inches of rain within 24 hours. That is about 1/3 of a normal year's rainfall for Mesa, all from just the March 11, 2006 storm. The snow level was at about 2000 foot elevation, so the nearby desert mountains got snow and lots of it. Parts of the Superstition Mountains, for example, received about 4 feet of snow from just this one storm.