By John Simpson
Here comes the broken record and I can make September 2020’s climate report short. The Tucson Airport and my home in central Del Lago both recorded not a drop of rain for the month of September. This is only the second time this has occurred at the airport since records began in the 1880’s. September 2020 was also the hottest September on record for the airport, which was 4.7 degrees above average and easily shattering the record for the previous warmest September. September rainfall for the Vail readership area ranged from 0 to about 0.10.” Much of Tucson was dry as well with many places not seeing a drop.
For the 2020 Monsoon Season, rainfall amounts varied throughout Vail from just over ½” in the Rita Ranch area, to about 2.5” in Mescal. All places well below average. See rainlog.org for rainfall in your area. The Tucson airport and my home coincidentally both received 1.62” of rain for Monsoon 2020. My recent 10-year average is 7.06” and the airport’s 10-year average is 6.12.” This was my driest monsoon since I started taking records 10 years ago and the second driest Monsoon for the Tucson Airport since the 1880’s. At the time of this writing in early October, 100 plus degree days continue and are expected to continue for much of the first full week of October. 2020 broke the record for the most 100 degree plus days at the end of September. 1994 previously held that record and as I discussed last month, 1994 was similar to 2020, so a year like this weatherwise has happened before. For next month, I will discuss the month of October.
John Simpson has lived in southern Arizona the past 31 years and Vail for 15 of those years. John has a bachelor’s degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Missouri and a mster’s degree in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Arizona. He loves exploring the outdoors with his family and photographing weather and the beauty of southern Arizona.
