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Weather Hanky Panky - Reporting Virtual, Not Actual, Weather
Today is the first day of the Arizona monsoon season.Don't run outside to check to see if it's sticky and hot. It isn't. Well, not sticky anyway, but temperatures could hit 110 degrees today. This year, the National Weather Service decided to give the monsoon set dates, declaring June 15 to Sept. 30 Arizona monsoon season - and yes, monsoon season is redundant - instead of using the system that marked the start of the season when the dew point reached 55 degrees for three consecutive days. Dew point is a measure of the amount of moisture in the air. A high dew point means it feels muggy. Because the season can bring violent storms and floods, the Weather Service decided to remove the guesswork about the season's start date with the hope people would concentrate more on the season's dangers. "This is when our most violent weather happens," said Tony Haffer of the National Weather Service. The monsoon is defined as a shift in winds. In Arizona, that shift brings moisture from the Gulf of California and the Gulf of Mexico. Haffer predicts that will happen in two or three weeks. Something funny might be going on here. The southwest monsoon is a major indicator of northern hemisphere weather, so giving a fixed date for it is like setting a fixed location for the jet stream. Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-06-15 |
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