Monsoon season delivering significant moisture

A pickup is seen plowing through at least a foot of water at the intersection of First Street and El Rio Drive early Tuesday evening. Courier photo by Keith R. Cerny

ALAMOSA – If it seems like lately, it has been raining more than usual for this time of year, that’s because it has.

According to data obtained on Thursday from the National Weather Service (NWS) in Pueblo, Alamosa has received 4.69 inches of rain during the months of June, July and August to date.

More than half of the seven inches of rain Alamosa receives on an average in an entire year has fallen in the past two-and-a-half months.

At first glance, that may not seem to be particularly noteworthy as June, July and August – known as the “monsoon months” - are typically when most of the rainfall occurs in this area.

But, according to NWS, this monsoon season is turning out to be, relatively speaking, very wet.

In the month of June, Alamosa received 1.27 inches of rain. July brought another 1.62 inches of rain followed by August, with 13 more days to go before month’s end, when 1.8 inches of rain have fallen so far.

But how those numbers compare with “normal” rainfall amounts as tracked and averaged over time by NWS tells an even better story.

Alamosa is a designated CF6 site, meaning that preliminary climate data is kept daily measuring 18 different areas related to weather specifics including, but not limited to, temperature, dew point, humidity, precipitation, the speed and direction of winds and others.

Based on that historical data, normal rainfall for Alamosa in June is .43 inches, 1.04 inches in July and 1.29 inches in August.

Comparing this year’s monsoon season with normal precipitation, Alamosa has experienced 1.93” of rain more than normal with, again 13 days left in the month.

In terms of actual precipitation measured over the past five years, the 2022 monsoon season easily tops out in every month, as well.

While the difference of one or two inches of rain may not be worthy of comment in other areas of the nation with wetter climates, one or two inches of precipitation in a high desert area that only gets seven inches of rain in an entire year can easily define the difference at a myriad of levels between a year that is good and a year that is… not.

In this case, “when it rains, it pours” is actually a pretty good thing.

 


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