Summer 2020 among top 3 driest on record
If you’re hoping for rain in the next week or two, you’re in for a disappointment.
The forecast continues to call for “bone dry” conditions, said Alyssa Clements, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.
An arid start to autumn follows the third-driest summer on record for Santa Fe, she said, with just 2.6 inches of rain from June to September.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good monsoon season at all,” Clements said. “We anticipated a below-normal monsoon season at the start of the summer, but even this one was well below expectations.”
Still, 2020 bested 2003, when Santa Fe saw less than 2.5 inches of rain, and 1956, when just 1.62 inches of rain fell.
The National Weather Service does not have full records for Santa Fe for a 40-year period, from 1958-1997.
Santa Fe fared better than other cities across the Southwest that recorded their driest monsoon ever, some with only a
trace of rain or none at all this summer.
Flagstaff, Ariz., notched its driest season ever, down more than 6.5 inches of rain from its normal 8.31 inches. Las Vegas, Nev., tied a record set in 1944 for the least amount of monsoon rain. Las Vegas also shattered a record set in 1959 for consecutive days with no measurable rainfall. It stood at 164 days on Thursday.
Phoenix didn’t have its driest monsoon, but the city had its hottest one ever. Phoenix also was moving toward a record for daily high temperatures of 100 degrees or more. So far, it’s at 132 days.
Yuma, Ariz., had no rain. Farmington and Roswell each had one of their driest monsoons on record. Albuquerque had less than half its normal amount of rain.
All of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, and most of Nevada are in some form of drought, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, released Thursday. Fire restrictions in the national forests still haven’t been lifted in many places.
Earlier this week, meteorologists with the National Weather Service said things are “not looking good” for a wet and white winter in Northern New Mexico.
The culprit: a La Niña weather pattern, which is a climate phenomenon of colder-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean that combine with an abnormally high air pressure system. It creates a drying trend in the Southwest because the system often pushes east-moving storms north of New Mexico.
La Niña produces the opposite effects of its counterpart, El Niño, which happens when warmerthan-usual sea temperatures and lower air pressure in the eastern tropical Pacific push moisture into the Southwest.
Clements said most areas of New Mexico remain in moderate to extreme drought, and there’s no sign of relief.
Weather conditions are going to “keep us warm and dry for at least the next week,” she said. “It just doesn’t look good.”