A monsoon storm begins dropping rain on July 29, 2022.ย ย 

"A couple of showers are starting to top up in Cochise County this afternoon," the National Weather Service says.

"They are moving northeast bringing locally heavy rainfall and gusty outflow winds."

The weather service has been saying a modest increase in moisture could bring thunderstorms this week to far southeastern Arizonaย โ€” Cochise Countyย โ€” and near the international border, and now, on Wednesday, June 28, it has.ย 

The storms, which moved through the Bowie area at about 3 p.m., are kicking up dust along Interstate 10 from the Arizona/New Mexico border to Lordsburg, and officials urge caution while driving.ย 

Rain, but not dry lightning, would be welcomed by firefighters who have been battling a wildfire larger than 1,000 acres near Fort Huachuca in Cochise County.

As for Tucson, NWS predicts highs of 108 Wednesday, 105 to 106 Thursday and Friday, and back up to 110 to 113 on the July 4th holiday weekend.

The weather service said in a tweet Monday that it's not looking like Tucson's monsoon season "willย be as activeย and/or wet overall when compared to average and certainly not the last two rather wet seasons."

On Tuesday, it said on itsย website: "Our first named storm of the season Adrian has formed well off the southwest Mexican coast ... and is expected to drift slowly westward." On Wednesday, Adrian rapidly intensified into a hurricane.

"Another wave near the coasts of Guatemala and El Salvador is expected to develop into a tropical cyclone as well, and could end up tracking a little further north ....

"That's the one that could give a big boost to establishing broader foundational support for the monsoon into central and north central Mexico to start July. We'll see if we can get a push into our area for our typical 4th of July ramp-up in coverage, but heat still looks like the biggest story for now."

Get your morning recap of today's local news and read the full stories here: http://tucne.ws/morning


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