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. ...
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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.
