ben's blog

Notes from an Applied Climatologist - Sept 2014 Rainlog Climate Summary

Friday, October 3, 2014

September turned out to be quite a month as far as extreme monsoon season weather across Arizona. The month started out rather quiet as the monsoon ridge of high pressure weakened and a trough of low pressure to the north ushered in dry air from the west across the state. This suppressed thunderstorm activity for several days until the monsoon ridge pushed back north helping to bring low level moisture back into the region. (read more)

SW Climate Podcast - Mini-Video Podcast on Monsoon & Drought Q&A

Thursday, October 2, 2014

We are introducing a new feature: video mini-segments from the podcast. The first segment comes from the August 2014 SW Climate Podcast - and addresses monsoon & drought in response to a listener question.

Southwest Climate Podcast: Tropical Storm Climatology & El Niño Models

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

In the September Southwest Climate Podcast, Zack Guido and Mike Crimmins talk about tropical storm climatology, details about Norbert and Odile, explore the details of the "Kelvin Wave", and answer a question about El Niño models submitted by a listener. (read more)

Notes from an Applied Climatologist: Monsoon End Q&A

Monday, September 29, 2014

How Do We Know When the Monsoon is Over?

Across the southwest United States, the start of the summer monsoon season is pretty easy to recognize once you have experienced it firsthand a few times. Typically, one week it's hot and dry, and the next week, it's hot and sticky, but hopefully raining. (read more)

Monsoon Summary (June 15 – Sep 18)

Friday, September 19, 2014

We are nearing the end of the 2014 season, and while it is difficult to characterize the highly variable day-to-day storms of any monsoon as “normal,” we have had a fairly typical if not above-average monsoon season in terms of precipitation. Regional assessment is complicated by the effects of a few extreme events that amplified precipitation amounts in parts of Arizona and New Mexico and caused an entire month’s or year’s worth of precipitation to fall in a single storm. (read more)

This post was originally published as part of the September 2014 Southwest Climate Outlook

El Niño Tracker - Sept 2014

Thursday, September 18, 2014

The song remains the same this month with El Niño not quite here yet, but probably soon. This is now the seventh consecutive month since the NOAA Climate Prediction Center issued an “El Niño Watch” last March. The signs are a bit stronger once again, but it is getting late in the game...(read more)