University of Arizona News | 09 July 2010
UA researchers are looking at summer thunderstorms in a variety of ways to learn how to predict them and mitigate their dangers.
The monsoon is coming. Perhaps this week. Maybe.(Credit: SAHRA/Flandrau Science Center)
Monsoon Night
It's always a guessing game when and where and to what extent the annual summer thunderstorms will appear. This year is no different.
Two summers ago, the monsoon season produced a spectacular 9 inches of rain. Last year, it was only a meager 4 inches.
And forecasters, pointing to temperature changes in the Pacific Ocean, suspect it may only produce an average amount of rainfall this summer.
A new website and a new exhibit at the University of Arizona Flandrau Science Center offer plenty of information about monsoon activity in Arizona, said Gary Woodard, the associate director of the UA's Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas, or SAHRA, now part of Biosphere 2.
Woodard said SAHRA's Monsoon Monitor website is still a work in progress, but it already offers a webcam view of the Tucson Basin from the UA campus, a drought monitor, rainfall data and weather radar. Another window shows a video clip of the previous hour of sky activity in Tucson, which is especially captivating when clouds start to build up.
