What is the monsoon?

It’s a weather phenomenon that’s familiar to Southern Colorado – the summer monsoon. However, is its development easily understood? Stormtracker 13’s Abby Acone explains.

The daily storms, the heavy rains and the severe weather are all impacts of the North American monsoon.

It’s a regular and known pattern across southern Colorado. Other states experience, too. Those states include Arizona, new Mexico, Southern California and Utah. The southwestern United States gets soaked with moisture between the months of June and September.

The monsoon is a seasonal wind shift. This shift results in two things.

First, high pressure sets up over the southern United States – helping to keep this area hot and dry in the summer. Clockwise wind around this high helps pull lots of water into the region from the Gulf of Mexico and the4 Gulf of California.

Second, thanks to intense solar heating, a thermal low develops over the desert southwest. This helps drag even more moisture into our area.

The interaction of these two features generates our annual pattern of thunderstorms day after day.

Keep in mind, the minor shifts of the high pressure can prompt the plume of monsoon moisture to move. This results in minor changes to the coverage and intensity of storms day to day. That’s why southern Colorado isn’t under the influence of the monsoon every day.