MONSOON SEASON IN ARIZONA

As we prepare for the first day of school-August 7th- we work around the monsoon season, especially  because we have bulletin boards outside.

What is the monsoon season in Arizona?  Until you really experience it you can't imagine the force of it and the amount of rain dumped on you in a short time, almost each day from June 15th, the official opening of the monsoon season till it officially ends on Sept. 30th.

Friday, August 2nd was one of the worst of the monsoon storms of this season. You wake up in the morning to sunny, blue skies. Often by 11:30am you see the storm clouds begin to gather

 and then you hear the thunder, see lots of  lightning, and then pouring rain. Sometimes it is a straight downpour and other times like today the wind was very strong. We also lost power for a short time.

Check out this monsoon storm from All Saints Catholic School :)

The monsoon storm usually lasts 30-40 minutes but it can go longer and it can hit more than once in the day. Flash flooding is very common during and after the storm.

 

We welcome the monsoon season because it is usually the only time it rains and this provides the moisture for the year and helps keep the fires down. So we are happy to see the rain come.

 

According to the weather bureau records, this is record breaking year for the monsoon rains. Most areas are above normal in rainfall.  Douglas has 10.23" compared to 3.40" last year at this time. Douglas is about an hour and a half east of Sierra Vista. Hereford about 10 minutes from us has 9.09" of rain to date and Sierra Vista has 3.74". The monsoons often hit small areas at a time really hard and then move on. So some areas really get lots of rain in a short time and others might get a much smaller amount of rain.

Once the monsoon storms move on we have beautiful sunsets.