The Southwest monsoon has wrapped up, and it featured a weird split of record dry conditions in parts of Arizona and soaking rain, including from the remnants of a former hurricane in California, Nevada and other states.
Arizona’s wet monsoon season improved the state’s drought conditions, but the West’s water woes are far from over.
At the start of this year, nearly three-quarters of Arizona was in an exceptional drought, the U.S. Drought Monitor’s most severe category. Now, less than 1% of the state is at that level.
It has been a very active monsoon season, especially in Arizona.
However, here in Southern California, we do not expect much rain during the summer, and the totals we have seen thus far will not be a drought buster.
What is the monsoon?
Here is a little recap: monsoon season occurs when upper-level winds shift, drawing moisture off the Gulf of Mexico and into the Southwestern United States. Typically, this mainly impacts New Mexico and Arizona but can also impact Southern California.
Southern Arizona has been under the strongest category of drought since early last year. With a strong start to monsoon, the area should soon show a bit of recovery.
It takes more than just a handful of good rainfalls to recover from such a bad drought.
“You really want to have a saturation process. You need to replenish the aquifers. You need to replenish the water tables,” Chief Meteorologist Matt Brode said. “Heavy steady rains work and basically all kinds of frames, but it has to happen over a long period of time.”
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
