Where’s the rain? National Weather Service expecting lull in Arizona monsoon
Jul 6, 2016, 12:37 PM | Updated: Jul 20, 2016, 5:21 pm
PHOENIX — Arizona’s 2016 monsoon season may have begun with a bang over the Fourth of July weekend, but a few days later, it seems to have stalled out.
The National Weather Service said its forecast shows most parts of Arizona will likely be without a monsoon storm for the next couple weeks.
“Phoenix, I would not expect to see rain for at least another week and it might be 10 days to two weeks until we see rain here,” Mark O’Malley with the weather service said.
The lack of rain will naturally dry out the state, something O’Malley said could lead to wildfires such as those seen across the state last month.
“We’re not out of the woods yet for fire weather season,” he said. “Another week of some hot, dry weather and we could be right back where we were in the middle of June.”
As of Wednesday, the rain gauge at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport has registered one one-hundredth of an inch of rain during the 2016 monsoon. It typically records about three inches during the average monsoon season.
However, the lack of rain this early in the season is not out of the ordinary.
Unlikely Phoenix will see rain for the next 10 days. Unusual to have a dry first half of July? Not at all. #azwx pic.twitter.com/KX5RJw96Mc
— NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) July 5, 2016
O’Malley said some of southeastern Arizona could see rainfall in the next few days.
The monsoon kicked off in a big way over the holiday weekend. Thunderstorms hit the Valley hard on Friday, causing severe thunderstorm warnings to be issued all evening long.
At one point, the area south of Buckeye was under a tornado warning.
Large hail was reported in parts of north Phoenix.
Arizona’s monsoon season officially begins in mid-June, though the first storms are not typically seen until July.
