Arizona Monsoon Season

Summer in Arizona can be brutal. High temperatures of 115 or 117 degress are common. In southern Arizona's Sonoran Desert, wildlife retreats to shade or underground burrows to wait for sunset and relief from the heat. But, when you think, you can't stand the heat anymore, Arizona monsoons start to roll in.

Rain clouds build up in Mexico and either roll directly up through Tucson to Phoenix or storms form in the White Mountains and along the Mogollon Rim and in the late afternoon slip down into the Valley.

These storms have an awe-inspiring ferocity. Lighting streaks the sky and thunder crashes echoing among the cliffs of the Superstition Mounains. Sometimes the storm is preceeded by a terrible sandstorm called a "haboob" a roiling, rolling wall of dirt that closes freeways and airports and sends residents running for cover.

When the rain does start to fall, the drops are large and fierce, splattering on the sidewalks and quickly forming tiny rivulets that merge to fill washes and arroyos. Because the water falls so quickly, most of it runs off causing flash floods that roar down usually dry waterways.

After the rain stops, waterfalls can be seen pouring off rock ledges. Some of the most spectacular are in Devil's Canyon east of Superior and in the Huachuca Mountains south of Sierra Vista. I've seen several rainbows at once in Salt River Canyon east of Globe. Witnessess a thunder and lighning show while camped down in the bottom of the Grand Canyon is memorable.

Wet creosote bushes let off a scent that anyone who has smelled it, cannot forget. It is the smell of rain, desert,dust, moisture, new life and cooling air. The Saguaro cactus that grows only in the Sonoran Desert, quickly sucks up as much water as it can hold, its pleated stalk expanding to hold the precisous moisture.

The monsoons are Arizona's summer lifeblood. Cattle tanks fill from running washes, pot holes in rocks hold water for days, a blessing to small desert animals. Roosevelt Lake, Lake Powell and Lake Mead store water to prevent flooding, and for use as irrigation.

If you want to learn more about the Sonoran Desert and its seasons visit the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson.
Janet