Southwestern Monsoon

[alicia-w]

well, it isnt arizona, but we have grown to love it. We try to take a drive somewhere every weekend to explore. last weekend was Angel Fire, Eagle Nest, Red River, and Taos. We've visited 5 of the 19 pueblos so far.

az is still close enough to visit often. i drove to phoenix last month for my brother's birthday and we'll be going to Portal/Paradise for four days at the end of August for the humminbird migration and our anniversary. (The George Walker house)

[Aslkahuna]

Today a number STREETS in Tucson were turned into raging rivers. We had 2.49in of rain from 8:40 PM last night to 6 PM today and have picked up 7.54in of rain for the month of July. Some parts of Tucson have picked up over 10 inches of rain in July-annual average there is 11 inches and we are NOT talking about the Foothills or elevated neighborhoods but downtown at the Air Force Base and the University.

Steve

[weatherbee1982]

Here are my stats so far (mostly thanks to the monsoon):

Precipitation YTD: 11.13" (+5.62" Departure from Average to date)
July Precipitation: 8.23" (+6.16" Departure from Average)

[azskyman]

That is healthy precipitation in any climatic zone. I knew that Tucson and the surrounding areas have had abundant rain, but not like that! Seems I remember last year as being more in the foothills and north of town near Marana and Casa Grande. But not this year!

I've had a nice .98" for July here in NE Phoenix, but many areas even within blocks of me have doubled that or more. Last night, for example, I picked up .03" while the other side of Scottsdale Airport picked up 1.01". Such is the monsoon.

Any sense that there is a significant break in sight? Usually we have one or two during the season that last a few days to a couple of weeks.

[azskyman]

Well, I see Dennis n' company up in the White Mountains got 3.12" to kick off the new month, with some more in the vicinity this afternoon and tonight.

Seems everyone is getting a piece of the action.

I could use another couple of inches of rain in August, though. But not all in 20 minutes!!

[Aslkahuna]

Some parts of Tucson have gotten their ANNUAL ration of rain during the last half of July. That's 11 inches of rain which is a good monthly total most anywhere in the Country.

Steve

[bob rulz]

I've only had 1 good storm from the monsoon so far this year. On July 25 (or was it the 26th?), we had one hell of a lightning storm to our south. Luckily there was no lightning up at my house so I could actually stand outside and watch it. At the same time, I wish it would've hit us; some areas of the southern and central Salt Lake Valley saw an inch of rain in an hour, and more total. Of course, I live in the northern part of the valley.

Southern Utah has been hit pretty well, though, as has the Tooele area. Grantsville flooded from that same storm system. St. George has fared well; street flooding on July 27, and then river flooding nearby on August 1 (although that wasn't good, since it severely damaged or destroyed 9 homes).

But overall, where I live, it's been a pretty pathetic monsoon season so far. A total of 0.55" of rain at the Salt Lake Airport so far this year. Going by Phoenix's official monsoon season definiton (since I don't think we have an official definition of our own), our monsoon started on July 24 (3 straight days of 55+ average dewpoints from July 24 - 26; that means is started on the 24th, right? Or would it be the 26th?). The highest dewpoint so far has been 66 degrees (which is very high for here; dewpoints of 65+ are rare), which was set at about 10pm on July 25. The temperature at the time was only 70 degrees, though.

[Aslkahuna]

The first day is considered the start. However, at your elevation the critical dewpoint would be lower. I use 52F for Sierra Vista which is close to the elevation of SLC. The reason for that is that the mixing ratio at 52F at 4500' is the same as the mixing ratio for 54F at Tucson and 55F at Phoenix. The amount of moisture in the air is the same at those temperatures at each location. BTW, a dewpoint of 65F at 4500' gives you the same moisture as a dewpoint in the low 70's at sea level. When one considers that my dewpoint has reached as high as 72F, well, so much for AZ dry heat. When I was at Dugway, I was not aware of any monsoon criterion being used by SLC NWS. I remember some vicious storms at Dugway and even photographed a nasty looking wall there. Should be noted that the dewpoint criterion is totally ridiculous since the moisture increase is a CONSEQUENCE of the seasonal windshift that is actually the monsoon and moisture surges northward of Arizona are usually the result of systems in the westerlies interacting with the monsoon and pulling moisture north and not really the monsoon itself-even the far stronger monsoon in Asia doesn't get much poleward of 38-40N at it's northernmost position in Summer.

Steve

[bob rulz]

Thanks for this info! That's very good to know. I guess there's a reason we don't give an official definition for when the "monsoon" starts. For one, we don't get the <I>actual</I> monsoon. But I also just don't think it stays moist enough. Supposing it would be 52 degrees, it still would've started on July 24. However, only 10 days since then (and 1 day before that) have had 52+ degree average dewpoints. Even if we don't get the actual monsoon, what we get is still monsoon moisture. It generally doesn't stick around for more than a week at a time, though.

[azskyman]

Showers and storms have been more isolated and spread out the last few days, but if you get caught under one there is still quite the downpour for a few minutes.

Dew points are inching up a bit, and we'll see what happens once the tropical moisture really starts penetrating Texas.

We have an easterly flow aloft that might help bring some more soup our way before long!

[riverratmike]

this year in Lake Havasu City, AZ has been terrible as far as the monsoon goes. We had one decent t-storm about 2 weeks ago and that has been it. Been living in Havasu for 5 years now and this year by far has been the least amount of t-storms so far. It really weird, sure thought we'd have more than just one storm by now. Well anyway, keep my fingers crossed for some lightning photos. Anyone have any predictions for the rest of the monsoon season in Havasu?

Mike