Last month was the wettest July on record here with 6.80 inches of rainfall recorded at Tucson International Airport.
For context, that’s more than triple the average 2.25 inches of rain in July.
July also earned the title of second-wettest month ever recorded (since 1895) in Tucson, falling just behind August 1955, which saw 7.93 inches of rain.
July’s rainfall surpassed the average for the entire monsoon season, which is 6.09 inches, according to the National Weather Service in Tucson.
There were also 17 days of measurable rain that fell over the month.
If that doesn’t make you a believer, consider this:
On July 25, the National Weather Service in Seattle tweeted that Tucson had received more rain in two weeks (July 11-24), than Seattle had since May 1. Seattle’s rainfall total for July, albeit usually among the city’s drier months: A trace.
Tucson hasn’t seen this much rain in almost 100 years. The previous record was 6.24 inches in July 1921, which is a half-inch less than last month’s record.
July 1921 was also preceded by a bone-dry June, just like this year.
Despite this, the 1921 monsoon ended up being the third-wettest on record: 11.04 inches fell between June 15 and September. The all-time record was the 1964 monsoon, which dropped 13.84 inches on Tucson.
Michael Leuthold, program manager for regional weather modeling at the University of Arizona’s Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, pointed out this is the wettest July for the airport, which records official precipitation data for the city, but it’s not necessarily true for metro Tucson, which might have seen more rain this year and in the past, depending on the location.
Leuthold concedes, “In general, yes, if you ask me, just by looking at the rain and amount of green, this was probably one of the wettest Julys on record.”
