Southwest Monsoon 2022

[John Farley]

I am a little surprised that nobody has started a thread yet for the 2022 Southwest Monsoon, given its exceptionally early and strong start. In fact, an article in the Albuquerque Journal yesterday quoted a meteorologist saying that since record-keeping began in 1905, this is the earliest that there has ever been a monsoon onset of this intensity in New Mexico. Very much needed, given the extreme drought in much of the Four Corners states. Here in Pagosa Springs, CO, we have had close to an inch and a half of rain in the past week, bringing us well above the usual June total of under an inch - and more is likely on the way before June is over. The attached pictures are of sunlit mammatus last evening after a rather light (compared to several other recent storms) thundershower passed over our house.

 

[John Farley]

Here is a link to the article I mentioned in the post above:

Monsoon relief comes early - Albuquerque Journal (abqjournal.com)

 

[Warren Faidley]

Been a rather frustrating monsoon to chase in SE AZ so far -- especially with insane gas prices. Not-so-impressive CAPES, short-lived, pop-corn cells producing undercutting OFB's and a somewhat stabilized dust bed from rainfall -- if you are seeking haboobs. Low-grade lightning so far. I'm not a big fan of SW 500mb flow during the monsoon. Hopefully the easterly flow, along with embedded waves will arrive soon.

 

[LoriGraceAz]

I'm fortunate to live in far southern Arizona where the early onset of monsoon has been very welcome. And scenic imagery is there, but you just gotta commit to the chase. I captured the first shot in my hometown of Rio Rico and is the first time I've ever had a bolt strike so close it illuminates all the raindrops in frame. The second was captured near Patagonia, AZ yesterday before the storm died out. I'd love to see a monsoon topic here.

 

[Mark Gressman Jr]

That's a cool lightning shot with the raindrops! How close was that to you? I'm not very familiar with monsoons, but I'd imagine the blowing sand increases the frequency of lightning... all other things being equal.

 

[LoriGraceAz]

That's a cool lightning shot with the raindrops! How close was that to you? I'm not very familiar with monsoons, but I'd imagine the blowing sand increases the frequency of lightning... all other things being equal.

thanks! It was about 1/8 to 1/4 of a mile from what I can calculate.

 

[James K]

Where I'm at in CO, we've had no storms this year...just a few little thundershowers. Its been pretty weird having basically nothing & its already July. (my mother said there was 1 heavier thundershower last thursday that lasted around 10 minutes. I wasn't around for it, but sounds like the only one that would even qualify as being remotely storm-like) Its going to be a very odd summer if we actually end up getting nothing this whole season.

As far as monsoon season this year, as much as I would love to see some good heavy rain and/or a good lightning show...I'm simply not going to get my hopes up...and just expect another dud like the past couple years.

 

[Warren Faidley]

The early activity in Arizona has been an anomaly. Very unusual, alternating SW/W, upper-level flow that has created issues with sprawling anvils and cloud debris lowering CAPES.

It looks like everything will reset late this week and we might get the usual S/SE/E pattern that offers a few easterly waves embedded in higher DP's. Maybe.

 

[John Farley]

Despite the great early start to the Southwest Monsoon season precipitation-wise, as others mentioned, there have not been a lot of lightning photo ops. Even with more than 4 inches of rain in Pagosa Springs, CO since the monsoon began around 3 weeks ago, the majority of the precipitation we have had here has been stratiform. But then yesterday, the lightning photo ops came on in a big way. A storm south of Pagosa Springs produced prolific lightning, much of it over the Archuleta Mesa, and some decent storm structure, too. Here are a few pics:



Hoping for a repeat performance today.

 

[James K]

Nice strike captures John!

 

[James K]

I saw a few strikes on the 5th on some little cell south of where I was at from making a store run.
Considering these are frame-grabs from a cheap dashcam they turned out ok.
I still have yet to have any storms or meaningful rain this summer..

 

[John Farley]

Got some nice branched lightning in Santa Fe, NM last night. This was from a line of storms that seemed to develop on an outflow boundary from earlier storms a little farther east. These formed over the western part of the city and drifted slowly to the west or WNW.

 

[James K]

Awesome pic's John!

---------
I've finally had a couple more meaningful rains here...
And had my first true thunderstorm of the season tonight. Its about time. I was starting to think this would be 'a summer with no storms'

..but for now, a few lightnings from a tiny/little cell (thundershower, not storm) that passed near me on the 24th.
(in the 2nd pic you can basically see what a little thing this was.. kinda surprizing it was actually spitting out an occasional lightning)

 

[James K]

And a few pic's from yesterday afternoon looking west(& a bit north) towards a severe-warned storm.
I got the edge of this one/was within the warning ..
before it arrived, I sat out watching(& recording) its occasional strike. Then went in as the rain started. It gave a nice rain enough that I didn't have to water the garden.
Pic's 1-3 are various strikes(frame-grabs from video) during the storm. Pic 4 is a weird little 'feature' it had when I first went out..

----------
Later at night, I was treated to a nice lightning show from multiple storms. And got a good soaking rain from one of them
I probably sat up outside for a good hour watching (& grabbed a bit of video) of lightning.
Oh one of the things I love *and miss* about summer...watching thunderstorms at night!!
I did see one odd thing: there was a ground-level flash of light, it was orange-ish at first then turned white, then to very much cyan.
My only guess would be a powerflash? Maybe wind from the storm took out a tree or something that then took down some lines?
..The monsoon has finally made it up this far!..
My need for a thunderstorm has been satisfied for now

 

[John Farley]

Here are a few pics I have gotten the last couple weeks in the Pagosa Springs, CO area:

July 19:


July 22:


A little enhancement on this one, but the appearance was interesting as the precipitation was likely frozen (hail/graupel/snow) as it came out from the cloud base, as the cloud bases were pretty high this day, with a bigger difference between temperature and dew point.

This evening:


We are getting a good soaking rain tonight, and the monsoon in this area looks to be quite active for at least the next week.