by John Simpson
I did not come up with a catchy title to describe the monsoon for July because overall, it was not that exciting for most of the Vail Voice 
Readership area. It was neither exceptionally wet or dry and the rainfall amounts varied greatly across the Tucson area and even the Vail area as expected. The big winner for rainfall for the Vail area was the north part of Civano where 3-5” of rain was reported. There were no “big” losers although most of the area was below average. Other reports include: Corona with about 2.5 inches (one storm dumped hail), Rancho Del Lago with about 2”, places along Old Spanish Trail reported about 1.5-2”, I-10 and Kolb reported about 1.5”, the area east of Colossal Cave Road just north of Cienega Creek reported about 3”, and lastly, Mescal reported around 2” South of I-10 and 3” North of I-10.
There were no reports for Rita Ranch on rainlog.org. I recorded 2.04” of rain at my home which is well below my eight-year average of 3.17” for July. Last July (2017) was the wettest month I recorded since I started taking observations in 2011. I recorded 5.20” last July and much of the area was very wet.
The big winners for the Tucson area were the northwest side and the far East side (which includes Civano) where 3-5” of rain fell. The big loser was much of central and west Tucson were only ½ to 1” of rain fell. The airport was somewhat of a hot spot for the West side of town and came up right at average with 2.26” of rain.
Some other winners across Arizona were Prescott with 4-10” reported and Ajo with 3-4” reported. Ajo averages much less rain than our part of the state. July was the 8th warmest the Tucson airport recorded. If it were not for the two heat waves, one at the begging of the month and one at the end of the month, July would have been below average.
Because of this, 2018 is now the warmest Tucson has ever seen for a January through July period. Remember, last month we dropped to third, but are now back at one. At the time of this writing in early August the Vail area has received no appreciable rain and temperatures are hotter than average. For next month, I will report on August.
Photos by John Simpson
