Tucson just experienced its wettest first two days of any November since weather records started being kept here in 1894.
Sunday and Monday saw a total of 1.47 inches of rain at Tucson International Airport, where the city's official weather records are kept. That topped the .48 recorded for the first two days of November in 1923, the National Weather Service says.
The city officially recorded 1.23 inches on Sunday, Nov. 1 and .24 inches more fell in the early morning of Monday, Nov. 2.
The Nov. 1 total broke the 1987 record of 0.42 inch, the National Weather Service says. The previous record for Nov. 2 was .21 inch set in 1914 and 1923.
Floodwater surged into Sabino Canyon on Sunday as heavy rain pounded Tucson and communities across Pima County.
The U.S. Forest Service – Coronado National Forest shared this video shortly after noon, reporting that water had risen to an estimated 4 to 6 feet in just 15 minutes.
Video: U.S. Forest Service – Coronado National Forest
Over 72 hours from Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 of 2026, a total of 2.16 inches of rain fell in Tucson, said Julia Tetrault, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, with even heavier rainfall on Mt. Lemmon and surrounding areas.
“For the last 72 hours, we have had the highest rain gauge at 7.95 inches in Sabino Basin in Green Mountain, but there's other observations of five inches and almost 6.46 inches in Whitetail,” she said.
Tucson’s rainy Halloween weekend also set a number of other precipitation records, including a daily rainfall record for Oct. 31.
“That was 0.69 for the daily total, and that breaks the record of 0.44, and that happened in 1926,” Tetrault said.
That brought Tucson's recorded rainfall for October to 1.2 inches.
“That's kind of a crazy departure from normal,” Tetrault said. “Our normal is 0.67 inches, so that's about a half-inch in departure from normal and it's ranking the 27th-wettest October.”
