I want some coffee!

When SE Arizona starts getting monsoons, the temps are usually a crap shoot. We have to wait to see what the trend will be. In a good year we'll get both a lot of  monsoon rain plus cooler temps... the temps don't necessarily correlate with the rains. So far this year the monsoons (which started early in late June!) seem to be giving us pretty good rain fall and manageable temps. Yee haw!! T-Storm in New Mexico a little west of Santa Fe Skies RV Park about July 2011. New Mexico is also in the path of the monsoons and has a share of the rain they bring to the American Southwest. That 200 kW solar array (lower left) can't earn its keep with all the cloud cover! We had a 'gully washer' yesterday. As of 22 July that brings the monthly accumulated rainfall to 3.35". That compares to 1.5" as about the minimum in a monsoon season during July. On the high side we had a one-time monsoon season where July hit 4.5"... that was spectacular. And scarey!! During th...

I have no excuse. June is the hottest month in southeast Arizona followed by July, August & September. Nothing has changed to justify me thinking this year is going to be any more miserable than the last. Yet every year I blurt out 'I don't remember it being this hot last year!' But it was. Get over it dude...it's the same as last year! The only reason July thru September are cooler than June is because of monsoons. Monsoons in Arizona are a miniature replica to what folks endure in e.g. India. Monsoon refers to the weather pattern which brings moisture-laden air from the Eastern Pacific across Baja California Sur and southern Arizona, then up the eastern slope of the Rockies in New Mexico, Colorado and the western great plains. Some years have more moisture than others, but the pattern has (so far!) been pretty consistent. The monsoons give us moisture via T-storms. Not in the quantity expected in southeast Asia, but it does follow a similar weather pattern. Cloud...