So take the monsoon seriously, but try to enjoy it. Monsoon storms can come and go quickly so it is best to check the weather along your travel route prior to hitting the road. In low-visibility situations, people may try to follow the lights of the car in front of them and you don’t want someone thinking you’re still on the road running into your parked car. During the monsoon or summer thunderstorm season, Arizona experiences more severe weather than many other states. It’s not like you have a choice. Monsoon season begins mid-June and ends September 30th, bringing with it some beautiful, but often unpredictable potentially dangerous weather conditions. Turn off all vehicle lights. Paul Iñiguez, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix, compared it to trying to predict where the balls will go at the start of a game of pool. Reach the reporter at [email protected]. After all, since monsoon season is a season, most people should not be concerned with whether or not a particular dust storm is defined as monsoon storm or not. This is often from east to west in Arizona, but not always, and sometimes storms will stick to mountains and not move anywhere.". Arizona's monsoon: 19 things to know about dust storms, rain and more, Why Phoenix's official temperature and rainfall are measured at Sky Harbor Airport, walls of dust that blow in from the desert, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Her work has appeared in Travel + Leisure, USA Today 10Best, Michelin Guide, Hemispheres, DuJour, and Jetsetter. More:Arizona's monsoon: 19 things to know about dust storms, rain and more. Beginning in 2008, the National Weather Service established June 15 as the first day and September 30 as the last day of the state's monsoon season, allowing visitors and residents alike to pay attention to monsoon safety rather than the technicalities of the season's start and end dates. “That means more people will see or hear thunderstorms and experience the outflow winds and dust than will actually get rain,” Iñiguez said. The giant walls of dust that blanket areas of Arizona almost every year, are signs that the monsoon is here. On the other end of the spectrum, the driest monsoon season on record occurred in 1924 when Arizona only received .35 inches of rain, resulting in a drought and a subsequently high hazard for wildfires. So, calling it the monsoon season is like saying it’s the season season. So take the heat seriously. Iñiguez said that due to the movement (or lack of movement) of storms and the sheer size of the Phoenix area, there are typically only one to three times a summer when most people get rain on the same day. Because, really, how much hotter can it get? Ten of those deaths occurred in a July 2011 flash flood near Payson. Last year, for example, Phoenix's official rain gauge at Sky Harbor Airport picked up less than an inch of rain for the monsoon season while gauges in other parts of the Valley, including near New River and Luke Air Force Base, recorded more than three times that amount. The National Weather Service and the Arizona State Climate Office track this data in order to better understand how weather patterns affect the state's climate during the summer months. Manufactured homes are especially susceptible to damage as they're typically not designed to withstand unusually high winds or other severe weather. There is also the don’t call a dust storm a haboob crowd, but we’ll get into that later. Mike Crimmins, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona, explained it this way. Just like you would in a tornado, bunkering down in a door frame or the bathtub away from windows is your safest bet if you can't get to a shelter before the storm. “We can make good forecasts about which direction some balls will go initially, but then they will start bouncing off each other, and that predictive ability decreases.”.

“I'd say the most dramatic and visible part of the monsoon that is pretty unique to Arizona would be the frequency of dust storms/haboobs,” said Jaret Rogers, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix. “Monsoon thunderstorms don’t have as much regularity associated with them," he said. There are some specific concerns that come with our summer storms. You don’t want others to follow you by using your lights as a guide. "In general, they form over higher terrain and then if there is sufficient steering flow can move into lower valley locations. © 2020 www.azcentral.com. Dewpoint conditions required for monsoon weather are recorded 56 times a season on average, but the greatest number of monsoon days in Arizona was 99 in 1984 and the lowest number of monsoon days was recorded in 1962 at just 27 days. Monsoon storms can be intense and dump lots of rain over a relatively small area. On some occasions, a severe storm may spawn a microburst, but more often high winds, dust, and severe downpours result in flash floods. Visibility within those dust clouds can quickly drop to near zero. Pull completely off the paved portion of the roadway. In recent years some folks have come to feel the monsoon is officially here when everyone's phone blows up with the summer's first dust storm warning from the weather service. It only takes 2 feet of swiftly moving water to float a car. Jillian Dara is a freelance travel writer and fact checker. Copyright © Arizona Department of Public Safety – All rights reserved. In most places when you think of a thunderstorm, you expect rain. Technically, the Arizona monsoon begins after the third consecutive day of dew points above 55 F. On average, this occurs around July 7 and continues for the next two months. Hey Weather Person: What Does Dew Point Mean? Then there is lightning. Flash floods are a concern.

The storm that causes the water to flow could be miles upstream of your location. Some think it's a way of distinguishing between an ordinary dust storm and those towering walls of dust that sometimes blow through. Your safety is worth it. In 2008 the National Weather Service – despite being fully aware of the origins of the word monsoon – declared a monsoon season from June 15 through Sept. 30. The heat is worst of all. They also can be pretty hard to predict. Or follow him on Twitter at @weldonjohnson. The greatest number of consecutive monsoon days (with dewpoints above 55 degrees) was 72 from June 25 through September 4, 1984, which was also the greatest number of consecutive days with dewpoints of 60 degrees or higher. Completely exit the highway if you can. Monsoon storms put on an impressive lightning show because cloud bases in this dry climate are higher (typically 6,000-10,000 feet compared to 2,000-3,000 feet in more humid locations) so there is more space to see the bolts. So the monsoon can be a little quirky and you’re not always going to see rain, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it seriously. Even before you got here, people probably showed you pictures of torrential rains flooding the streets, clouds of dust with what appeared to be faces in them swallowing the city and bolts of lightning that stretch for hundreds of miles. For general travel safety advice and tips please visit the “Tips” tab. Of course we encountered a dust storm in the 12 hours we were in Arizona. Stay in your vehicle with your seatbelts buckled. From heavy rain causing slick roads and low visibility to large dust storms causing near blackout conditions on the highways – monsoon driving can be extremely dangerous. A similar shift in winds causes a rainy season in other parts of the world as well, including northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, particularly here in Arizona. On average, the starting date for monsoon conditions in Phoenix is July 7 and the average ending date is September 13, but the official season starts and ends much later than the data supports—allowing for preparation for unexpected early and late-season monsoons. Keep an eye out for elderly neighbors and other people who might be vulnerable to the heat and/or don't have access to air conditioning. Set your emergency brake and take your foot off the brake. Once stopped, turn off your lights and keep your foot off of the brake pedal. That shift in winds in this area is caused by the positioning of a large area of high pressure, but that's a story for another time. What makes the monsoon different from the weather where you came from?