Summer is still shaping up to be one big non-soon, despite the massive monsoon storm that rolled through the Valley on Monday night.
Sean Benedict is a lead meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix. He says the monsoon still happens but the season in the Valley has changed.
"It's a large regional impact. So it still develops every year and areas do still see active weather and above normal rainfall. It just seems like our area, in the lower deserts of South Central Arizona, yeah, we haven’t been seeing too much," Benedict said.
The last storm to affect most of the Phoenix area was on July 2, says Benedict, when Sky Harbor saw 0.16 inches of rain. He says that was also the rainfall total for the month of July.
Meanwhile, dust and high winds brought the airport to a halt at one point, but the storm didn’t bring much rain — at least to Sky Harbor.
"The thing is, a lot of these storms were continuously moving. You got those strong winds and a good push, so that can limit your rainfall totals. There still was very heavy rain around the area," Benedict said.
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Some communities remained difficult to access after flooding from Tropical Storm Polo. -
The painter, whose artwork focuses on Arizona landscapes during its stormiest seasons, says her paintings are representative of life. -
Tropical Storm Polo left coastal areas in Sonora flooded Tuesday, but left other parts of the state with little rainfall as it began to dissipate. -
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency ahead of what is expected to be a Super El Niño. That extra water presents challenges and opportunities to an area in the midst of ongoing drought. -
The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for most of Arizona through Tuesday evening as remnants of Hurricane Polo move inland from the Pacific.
