Southwest Monsoon Season Ends With A Whimper

[hatrack]

Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Sept 18, 2003, 12:00 AM

"Monsoon 2003 limped out of town last week like a C-minus student or a two-star movie. It wasn't the best or the worst, the wettest or the driest, but it had its good points. Just not many.

The National Weather Service hasn't officially declared an end to the monsoon, but forecasters and climatologists say it's almost certainly a goner. The last real monsoon day was Sept. 10. Since then, the humidity has dropped and the winds have begun to shift.

EDIT

For the fourth straight year, the monsoon brought below-average rainfall at Sky Harbor International Airport, even as temperatures soared to record levels, day and night. Just 1.28 inches of rain were recorded during the season, which began July 18. The long-term average is 2.65 inches. More than a dozen temperature records fell over the same 55-day period, including one for the hottest night ever at the airport: 96 degrees on July 18.

EDIT

Summer runoff into the state's key water storage reservoirs was about two-thirds of average, according to Salt River Project. The utility's system is about 40 percent full. The larger Colorado River system is about 58 percent full, but Lake Powell is now half-empty and Lake Mead is projected to drop to its lowest level in 46 years in 2004."

EDIT

The Arizona Republic

[MoonAndSun]

1. Thanks for the post, hatrack...

I was so hoping the monsoons would last a little longer. It did drop lots more rain then last year, at least it felt like it did. I think the Weather Service has to stop measuring the rain from Sky Harbor. With the growth of the outlying areas around Phoenix, the storms almost peter out by the time they get into the central Phoenix airport area. In Scottsdale, where I live, it seems that we got more rain then Phoenix did.

Now I am just waiting for the highs to start going below 100 degrees. And the mornings are just lovely.

[blindpig]

2. damned shame

i was in the southeast a few weeks ago birding & herping. chirichaus(sp) were bone dry, disasterous. patagonias & huachuchas were ok, rincons poor. you folks need to ban immigration, golf & lawns! not that that would help the sky islands.