Apparently, It’s Monsoon Season in Tucson

June 20, 2008 | By Kelley Koehler | Filed Under About Tucson

Although that’s a redundant title, as ‘monsoon’ generally means ’season.’

I must not have been paying attention. This year, the national weather service declared monsoon season to start on June 15 and end on September 30. It’s good to know the national weather service can declare weather.

They have all sorts of Tucson monsoon season statistics and maps and whatnot over on the National Weather Service Monsoon page for Tucson.

We used to declare the monsoons had arrived when the dew point was at over 54 degrees for three consecutive days, I believe. The days would get muggy and people would check the news – it it monsoons yet? No? Oh.

But no more. Dates have been set. Welcome, monsoon.

Now if only the rains would start…

tags: monsoon, weather, tucson

Comments

7 Responses to “Apparently, It’s Monsoon Season in Tucson”

Bobbi on June 20th, 2008 11:52 am

Its not even July yet. . . . The monsoons don’t even start till mid-July I thought!

Is this a result of global warming or an El Niño effect?
Steve Belt on June 20th, 2008 7:34 pm

I recall the declaration that monsoon would be date driven and not dew point driven that was announced earlier this spring, but I didn’t pay attention to the dates.

Starting monsoon June 15 makes no sense at all. I wonder if it has ever been the case that the dew point was over 54 for 3 consecutive days as early as June 15? July 15 would make far more sense, even if it hasn’t quite started raining, at least by July 15 we know it’s going to start raining soon.
Kelley Koehler on June 21st, 2008 11:35 am

Bobbi – it’s the result of someone deciding June 15 was a good date. With the previous dewpoint method, the season has started at least in early July. I didn’t click on all the years to find out the earliest it ever started.

Steve – my impression is that they wanted just to set a general season, so that they can focus on the storms or flooding or whatever. I would assume they tried to set a safe upper and lower bound to make sure the actual rains would be encapsulated in that time period. Or maybe I’m giving out too much credit!
Emma Hardesty on July 23rd, 2008 10:50 am

Folks, come on now.

Why quibble over a thing so essential and delightful to all of us: people, animals, the desert.

Weather forecasters simply need a date to denote the possibility of the coming rainy season, in order to deflect some of the calls they must receive from interested and/or pesky individuals. Think, for instance, of “hurricane season” beginning on June 1–no one is meant to believe that nature will ever perform on our schedules. So the rains are early–enjoy them.
Kelley Koehler on July 28th, 2008 12:04 pm

Emma – you’re right of course. This post was a little tongue-in-cheek! I enjoy our rainy season immensely, I won’t quibble over when it starts – as long as it starts!
Steve Belt on July 28th, 2008 12:27 pm

I’ll admit it, I was quibbling. I guess I just felt they started it too early, although in Northern Arizona (like Pinetop) it was pretty rainy earlier this year than typical. July 4th was rather rainy up there, which is all monsoon related, so maybe I need a broader perspective than just Phoenix.

Thanks Emma!
Tucson Monsoons | The Housechick Blog on June 25th, 2009 2:57 pm

[...] Tucson should be in the midst of Monsoons – our summer rainy season that officially starts on June 15th and ends September 30th. [...]

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