2014 was a roller coaster of weather in the Valley

PHOENIX — To say the least, it was a strange weather year in the Valley.

We went for 124 days without measurable rainfall at Sky Harbor (March 3 to July 4, the fifth longest dry streak in recorded Phoenix history) before the summer monsoon rolled in. Dan Leins with the National Weather Service says the Valley took in record rainfall on September 8 when the remnants of Hurricane Norbert joined forces with the monsoon and hammered us.

“They had 3.3 inches of rain at Sky Harbor, but there were spots in the East Valley in Chandler and Tempe that saw over five inches that day,” said Leins.

And parts of the Valley had severe flooding from that storm on the freeways and neighborhoods. Summer storms brought severe flooding in Laveen, Mesa, New River and many other locations.

The state is still in the drought, but looking at the Valleys official rain gauge at Sky Harbor this summer put a dent into it.

“We’ve had 8.2 inches of rain this year and we usually have 7.6 inches of rain at this time,” Leins said.

This summer was the 14th warmest on record with an average temp of 93.8 degrees. The warmest summer ever was in 2013 at 95.1 degrees. Charlotte Dewey with the National Weather Service says Phoenix had more than six inches of rain during the monsoon, more than twice the usual amount which cooled things down.

“We didn’t have that many days above 110 and not that many days above 105. Not sure exactly sure what fueled that, but it could have been the rounds of thunderstorms that we had that dampened the temperatures,” said Dewey.

Despite the storms, 2014 was the warmest year in recorded history for central Arizona, according to NOAA. The average temperature of 77.1 degrees and average low of 65.4 degrees are the warmest ever. The average high of 88.9 was the second warmest.