LAUREN GILGER: The monsoon season officially started on June 15 — as heard from professor Randy Cerveny earlier in The Show, we haven’t seen much rain yet, but we are expecting a "super El Niño" this year. It’s been forming in the Pacific Ocean and scientists say it could bring a whole lot of rain to the Valley this summer.
And, if you want to predict just how much — the University of Arizona’s Institute for Resilience is holding its annual Southwest Monsoon Fantasy Forecast competition right now.
Zack Guido with the institute was on The Show last year to tell us more about it.
ZACH GUIDO: We're just really asking the public for their best estimates of what monsoon precipitation will be like on a monthly level at five cities around the Southwest. It sort of circumnavigates the monsoon region here in the U.S. So that would be Tucson, Phoenix, Flagstaff, Albuquerque and El Paso.
And they make their estimates prior to the start of the month for that month at each site, and they score points based on how accurate their forecasts are, in comparison to what actually fell in terms of rain, and also how risky their forecast is.
LAUREN GILGER: So each win advances your ranking, culminating in someone winning the ultimate bragging rights by the end of the season.
If you want to try your hand at being a forecaster, you can join in online — but the last day to submit your predictions for July is coming up soon, June 30. ...
-
A monsoon arrived Monday with the first significant rainfall of the season around the metro Phoenix area. The National Weather Service measured 0.38 of an inch at Sky Harbor. -
Although Phoenix restricts its most popular trails when extreme heat warnings are issued, danger can still arise when the trails are open this time of year. -
Phoenix residents continue to endure the heat, but the latest weather forecast shows thunderstorms could break through this week. -
This year's already strong El Niño is strengthening, a trend with potentially significant implications for the intense – and now tragic – fire season. -
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has issued a high pollution advisory in Phoenix on Friday, July 10.
