Dry heat causes late start to monsoon season

Arizona is known for its abundance of monsoons during the summer around July and August. However, we haven’t been seeing too many this year so far.

According to Meteorologist James Sawtelle of the National Weather Service, talks about the reason why it has been too dry. “Apparently the subtropical jet stream has taken a really long time to migrate to the North,” said Sawtelle. “So the result is we’ve had a lot of recurring dry westerly to southwesterly flow.”

30 percent of Arizona’s annual rain falls during the monsoon season. No monsoons at this point in the year mean that there is a shortage of the rain that we’d usually see this time of year.

While there has been a late start, Monsoon season is still very much beginning. This Tuesday, Arizona saw more monsoon storms form across the high country and head toward the Valley. Several severe thunderstorm systems are also making their way into the Phoenix metro area.