Arizona cleans up after golf ball hail and a possible tornado at Heber Overgaard, the state first tornado watches since 2010

Arizona does not get nights like this often, and October is not when it expects them. On Wednesday evening a line of severe storms crossed the northern and central parts of the state with heavy rain, damaging wind, hail the size of golf balls, and nearly a dozen tornado alerts around Flagstaff and across eastern Arizona.

The hardest hit place was Heber Overgaard, a community of about 3,000 people in Navajo County, roughly 140 miles northeast of Phoenix. The National Weather Service office in Flagstaff issued tornado warnings minutes before a possible tornado came down shortly after 7 in the evening. At 6:20 in the evening the service had a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado 7 miles northwest of Forest Lakes, moving northeast at 30 miles an hour. By 7:22 the storm had weakened and was no longer producing a tornado, but the damage was done. Homes and property were damaged, trees came down on buildings and roads, and minor injuries were reported.

Navajo County Sheriff David Clouse asked people to keep emergency lines open for full time residents. The American Red Cross opened a shelter at Capps Middle School. State Representative Walt Blackman, whose district covers the area, called on Governor Katie Hobbs to declare a state of emergency for the affected parts of Navajo County, saying families were without power and damage was extensive. Hobbs said her administration is coordinating with county emergency management on shelter and support and has directed the state emergency, police and transport agencies to work with county officials, without addressing the emergency declaration request. The Navopache Electric Cooperative reported areas of catastrophic damage to its electrical infrastructure and gave no time for power to return.

The hail did its own damage hundreds of miles apart. The weather service reported golf ball sized hail in parts of the West Valley, and residents around Flagstaff and Mesa reported trees down across roads and on buildings. Rain across metro Phoenix ranged from a trace to three quarters of an inch on Wednesday, with nearly an inch measured east of Black Canyon City.

Forecasters put the night in context. Arizona tornado watches are rare, and the state had not seen them since October 2010, as of October 22. The storm system began moving out on Thursday, with more rain possible behind it and the risk shifting toward heavy rain and flooding around Phoenix. Crews will spend the coming days clearing debris and counting damage that, for now, has no official total.