Monsoons in New Mexico? You Must be Crazy!

When I first moved to Albuquerque to and heard about the Monsoons in New Mexico, I was like what are you crazy? It never rains here at my Albuquerque House!

Well, what I didn't understand was that Monsoon didn't necessarily mean tons of rain. Monsoon refers to the "seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation (thanks Wikipedia)."

What that means here in Albuquerque is that the winds shift from their normal westerly direction to more of a southeasterly flow. This air flow brings more humid air and sometimes-and I use the "sometimes" carefully-we get some rain. To read way more about the southwestern monsoons that affect New Mexico and Arizona read this article by Zack Giudo: Understanding the Southwestern Monsoon.

Before you get too excited about the possibility of a real rainy season in the Albuquerque area, you need to remember that we only get an average of 9.47 inches of rain per year. That's less than an inch per month. If you look at it that way then perhaps the 1.27 and 1.73 inches of rain we get during July and August will sound a little more impressive. Of course this year has been unusually dry. 1.73 inches sounds Noah-like right now.

The lack of rain here in Albuquerque is why houses in the duke city are missing two items that every house in my hometown (Chicago) all had: gutters and downspouts.

And the lack of rain here is sometimes reponsible for behavior that to my neighbors might seem a little bizarre-when it rains at my house we all run outside and dance around. If only we could actually *splash*