U.S. Southwest hits impressive rainfall during summer monsoon
ASSOCIATED PRESS / AUG. 26
Wildflowers are on full display at a popular recreation spot in Flagstaff, Ariz. This years summer rainy season unleashed with fury, bringing spectacular lightning shows, and bounties of wildflowers and mushrooms.
ASSOCIATED PRESS / JULY 24
A man rides a boogie board in a flooded park in Scottsdale, Ariz. After two bone-dry years that sank the U.S. Southwest deeper into drought, this summer’s rainy season unleashed with fury. Monsoon storms have brought spectacular lightning shows, bounties of wildflowers and mushrooms, and record rainfall to the region’s deserts and mountains. They’ve also brought destruction, flooding streets and homes and leading to some swift water rescues and several deaths.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. >> Cities across the U.S. Southwest hit impressive rainfall totals this summer, bringing much-needed — but temporary — relief to a region that has been mired in drought.
The winter, however, could be disappointing, with an expected weather pattern that typically means less snowpack that rivers and streams rely on, weather experts say.
The annual rainy period known simply as “the monsoon” ended Thursday with widespread precipitation across New Mexico and Arizona, including snow in higher elevations. The seasonal weather pattern starts in mid-June and brings high hopes for rain but doesn’t always deliver.
This year, it did but not equitably.
Payson, about an hour and a half drive north of Phoenix, had more than twice its normal rainfall, logging it’s wettest monsoon on record with nearly 15 inches (38 centimeters). Farther east, Show Low’s rain also hit a record 12.5 inches (31.7 centimeters). In the desert of the southern Arizona, Tucson recorded its third-wettest monsoon, with 12.7 inches (32.5 centimeters).
Phoenix had the second-most days of measurable rain during the monsoon, with 23, one day short of the record of 24 days set in 1896. But the city was nowhere near the top in overall rainfall.
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Many areas had above-normal precipitation, including Flagstaff, Prescott and Canyon de Chelly near Chinle on the Navajo Nation. The rainfall was more remarkable following two consecutive dry monsoons.
New Mexico saw wide variability in this year’s monsoon.
Albuquerque was still below average for the calendar year by about 2 inches (5 centimeters), said Todd Shoemake at the National Weather Service in Albuquerque. After dismal rain in August, the last gasps of the monsoon provided a big boost and put September closer to average, he said.
“Going back to that spotty nature of the monsoon, it’s kind of hit and miss,” Shoemake said. “And we had a lot of misses there in August.”
Roswell in the southeastern part of the state had a huge rainfall deficit in the early part of the year, he said, but ended the monsoon with more than 15 inches (38 centimeters) — well above normal.
The Four Corners area where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona meet didn’t fare nearly as well. It had below-average rainfall in general and remains in severe to extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Despite the rainfall, the Southwest is still trending toward hotter, drier weather because of climate change. A weather pattern known as La Nina is setting up for the winter, which forecasters say typically means less moisture.
