The report card for Tucson's 2023 monsoon season: Drier and hotter than normal.
Tucson had officially received 4.73 inches of rain by late last week. That's nearly an inch less than usual during the monsoon period here, which runs from June 15 to Sept. 30.
The airport, where official weather records are kept, normally gets 5.69 inches of rain during the monsoon.
The National Weather Service said the first rain of this year's monsoon season arrived July 17, when 0.45 inches were recorded at the airport.
The last of the season's rain was on Sept. 13, when 0.33 inches fell on the airport.
Aurora Apodaca, left, lets out a laugh as she plays in the aftermath of a monsoon storm with Oscar Stump on the west side of Tucson Monday afternoon.
The airport wasn't the only place to get less-than-expected rain totals.
In fact, according to the weather service every one of their climatological sites in the area received below-average rainfall this season.
This is unlike the 2022 monsoon season, which brought above-average rainfall to just about everywhere but Tucson's official site at the airport.
"Last year was pretty, pretty wet in some areas. Tucson got 4.94 inches last year while a lot of climatological sites were above average for rainfall," said NWS meteorologist Gigi Giralte.
For example, Nogales received about 15 inches of rain through the 2022 monsoon season, she said, nearly six inches more than the border community expects each year.
While the 2023 monsoon was the 39th-driest on record, it provided plenty of heat.
Through Sept. 27, the weather service had recorded 83 days of 100-plus-degree weather. That's 20 more days than the prior year. And it's about 15 more days than normal.
From June 16 to Aug. 7, the city recorded a steak of triple-digit highs. The 53-day stretch broke Tucson's previous record of 39 days days in a row of at least 100-degree days, which happened three times since 1987.
July was the hottest Tucson month ever recorded.
Every day that month reached at least 100 degrees. And 29 of July's 31 days were above 105 degrees. Further, 14 days in July reached at least 110 degrees.
July was nearly six degrees hotter on average than what's to be expected, Giralte said.
"Despite the fact that we did get precipitation in the middle of July, it was still our hottest month," Giralte said. "Precipitation does typically cool us down, however that's not necessarily the case."
Giralte says that the weather service is hopeful for a cooler-than-normalΒ fall. However, the three-month outlooks from the National Climate Predication Center say the area faces above-normal temperatures through the end of the year.
Despite predictions for warmer temperatures through the end of the year, Giralte says forecasts currently show an above-normal chance for precipitation in October.
Lightning strikes in the Catalina Mountain foothills in a rain cell on the northwest side of Tucson, Ariz., July 25, 2023. The storm surrounded the central part of the valley, mainly moving through sections south and southeast of the city.
