Tucson Monsoon Season
When I was growing up in Ohio I remember learning the word Monsoon in grade school. It was associated with tropical rainstorms, wind and lightening that came to parts of the world surrounded by water and tropical breezes.
It wasn’t until I moved to Tucson that I heard the word again. I may not be the best at geography but I know Tucson isn’t located on an island in the middle of the ocean.
Between the time I lived grew up in Ohio and the time I moved to Tucson I lived in Onalaska, Wisconsin and Des Moines, Iowa. The summers in Iowa felt like living in the tropics with triple digit humidity and close to that in temperatures, that’s what makes the corn grow tall.
When I first moved to Tucson 9 years ago, (I have one more year to go and I think I get my native status.) I laughed at the difference in the way the weather was reported in Iowa and Tucson.
For example in Iowa “Partly Sunny” meant “Sometime during the day there might be a minute or two where the sun will break through the clouds. In Tucson if Jimmy Stewart said tomorrow will be “Partly Cloudy” it meant that sometime during the day you might see a cloud in the sky. It might not be a very big cloud but there should be at least one.
There are so many clear sunny days in Tucson I think I double the sunny days in my lifetime in just two years of living here.
During the summer monsoon season this all changes. Monsoon usually starts sometime in the first or second week of July. The early signs of its arrival are increased humidity and clouds, lots of clouds begin to fill Tucson skies. Like an early harbinger of the arrival of monsoon large white puffy clouds begin rolling over the horizon.
Along with the clouds come dramatic sunrises and sunsets. The sunsets in Tucson and Arizona are legendary. You can’t pick up a travel magazine of Arizona without seeing at least one sunset. During Monsoon season the Sunsets become even more dramatic.
When we begin to feel the humidity, see the white bellowing clouds in the sky during the day and the mountains and sky looking like they are on fire from the setting sun you know Monsoon is just around the corner.
I hope you enjoy the images in the video montage they were all taken in the last 10 days of first showers, clouds and sunsets.
Monsoon is now here! I’ll be writing more on Tucson Monsoon rains, winds, incredible lightening storms and the need for a flood map so you can get around town. Especially if this is your first Monsoon season in Tucson.
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Dave Smith | Tucson Living, Tucson Real Estate
Dave,
Great photos! We need to talk photography next time.
By the way, my wife is from Ankeny, Iowa. We’re going back for a niece’s wedding in a few weeks.
John,
Thanks. You have the honor of being the first person to comment on this new site.