By John Simpson
The report for this month will be quick as October 2021 was nearly uneventful. There were only two days in which rain fell during the month, the 4th or 5th, and the 26th. I received very little rainfall during both events, and only recorded 0.05” for the month in central Del Lago, which is well below my 11-year average of 0.59.” The Tucson airport only recorded 0.01,” which is well below its 30-year average of 0.67.” October rainfall was not a total loss for the Vail area. Rainfall ranged from near 0” to just over 0.4,” with the highest amounts falling in the Rita Ranch area.
In fact, significant hail was reported in Rita Ranch during the storm event on the 5th. These small-scale storms with hail also hit other parts of the East side of Tucson dropping 0.2 to 0.4” rain amounts as well. On the temperature side, the month was slightly below average, with daytime highs averaging 0.2 degrees above average, night time lows averaging 3.5 degrees below average, leading the entire month’s integrated average being 1.5 degrees below average. At the time of this writing in mid-November, it has been warm and dry with not a drop of rain reported. All daytime highs have been above average, sometimes well above average, every day through the 12th. The outlook for the rest of fall and for winter so far, is for above average temperatures and below average rainfall. La Nina conditions are present, which causes the storm track to stay to our North more often than average, leading to drier weather. For next month, I will report on November and all of fall 2021 and provide additional guidance for winter 2021 / 2022.
John Simpson has lived in southern Arizona the past 33 years and Vail for 17 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.
