August was a wet month across much of Southern Arizona, with the notable exception of Tucson International Airport.
As a result, Tucson remains officially in a deficit for summer rain totals, even though few people in the area are disappointed.
“Usually I’m running into somebody who’s grumpy about the (lack of) rain in their backyard,” said climate scientist Mike Crimmins.
Crimmins, of the University of Arizona’s CLIMAS report, hasn’t heard the grumbling this year, and he is personally satisfied.
“I cannot complain anymore. On the east side, we had 4 inches of rain in four days, right around the middle of the month, including one storm event that tore the porch off my neighbor’s house.”
Rain gauges kept by citizen scientists on the website rainlog.org recorded above-average totals for the month of August in most areas of greater Tucson.
People are also reading…
Gauges in SaddleBrooke, just across the Pinal County line north of Tucson, recorded up to 7 inches of rain.
Up to 6 inches of rain fell on Mount Lemmon in August, according to Pima County Flood Control District monitors.
Three to 4 inches fell in the Tanque Verde area on the northeast, and 2 to 3½ inches fell on the southeast, according to multiple readings on rainlog.org.
In midtown, weather watchers reported 2 to 4 inches.
“Even around the airport, it’s not terrible. It’s just the airport itself,” Crimmins said.
Officially, for the season that began June 15, Tucson has 3.32 inches of rain, more than an inch under the normal total of 4.79 inches by the end of August. July recorded 1.43 inches and August 1.89 inches.
The monsoon period, June 15 through Sept. 30, supplies more than half of Tucson’s annual rain total — an average over the past 20 years of 6.08 inches.
Throughout Southern Arizona, rain has fallen in above-normal amounts in Nogales, Douglas, Bisbee, Safford, Willcox and Sierra Vista.
Parts of Sierra Vista close to the Huachuca Mountains recorded up to 7 inches of rain in August alone.
Some areas of normally dry Phoenix have received record rain, much of it coming in a prodigious storm that flooded rivers, washes and streets on Aug. 19.
North of Phoenix, along the Maricopa-Yavapai county line, multiple gauges recorded more than 6 inches of rain in 24 hours, Crimmins said.
Rain is forecast to return this week after a dry Labor Day weekend.
September averages 1.29 inches of rain, but tropical storms can boost that tremendously.
Crimmins said weather patterns favor such storm development this year.
“It’s been a great monsoon, but I still think we’ve got some excitement left,” he said.
