Every Fall I do a post looking at historical Monsoon rainfall in Tucson, so let’s update it for 2022. After two big outliers in a row (2021 was 3rd wettest monsoon, 2020 was 2nd driest on record), 2022 was comfortably “normal” (Exhibit 1). Exhibit 2 shows monthly rainfall in 2022 compared to Normal. We started off with a fairly good June, followed by pretty dry July (-51% compared to normal), a solid August (+42%) and a mediocre September (-39%).

Exhibit 1 – Annual Tucson Monsoons Totals

Exhibit 2 – 2022 Tucson Monsoon Compared to Normal

Exhibit 3 shows a comparison of 2022 season among major Desert Southwest metros. Las Vegas had the best showing relative to its normal amount (I wonder if they run betting odds on that). ABQ also had a good year with the highest absolute rainfall good for 36% above normal. El Paso was slightly over normal while Phoenix and Tucson registered slightly below normals. Yuma had a very dry year even relative to its meager normal rainfall.

Exhibit 3 – 2022 Monsoon by City

All in all a pretty unremarkable year in monsoon stats. I’ll take it as there is plenty of “interesting” action in other parts of our life such as markets and geopolitics!