{"id":141,"date":"2026-05-25T16:33:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T16:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=141"},"modified":"2026-05-25T16:33:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T16:33:42","slug":"when-does-monsoon-season-start-in-arizona-what-you-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=141","title":{"rendered":"When does monsoon season start in Arizona? What you should know"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

If you\u2019ve lived in Arizona during monsoon season, you can smell it. As rainstorms descend on the Valley, kicking up dirt and forming haboobs \u2014 those are dust storms, for any newbies \u2014 a distinctive scent fills the air.<\/p>\n

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That smell is courtesy of the creosote plant, a desert bush that emits a particular fragrance in the rain. When you catch a whiff, it means one thing: A storm\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n

Welcome to monsoon season.<\/p>\n

When is monsoon season in Arizona?<\/h2>\n

Every summer, it arrives. Officially, the National Weather Service defines Arizona\u2019s monsoon season\u00a0as the period between June 15 and Sept. 30. More broadly, monsoon season spans the hottest months of the Arizona summer, during which time the Phoenix area receives roughly half of its yearly rain. The season\u2019s frequent storms also take the edge off the glaring summer heat, making the persistent haboob-alert texts everyone in the state receives almost worth it.<\/p>\n

The actual start of monsoon season varies each year according to weather conditions within the state and beyond. Whether you\u2019re waiting for that first waft of creosote, or whether rain is beating down on your roof \u2014 and especially if you\u2019re confronting a haboob for the first time \u2014 here\u2019s what you should know about monsoon season in Arizona.<\/p>\n

What is a monsoon?<\/h2>\n

A monsoon is not an individual storm. The word comes from the Arabic \u201cmausim,\u201cwhich means \u201cseason.\u201d So yes, by saying \u201cmonsoon season,\u201d we\u2019re all being a bit redundant.<\/p>\n

We get the term from Arabic because of the centuries-old weather patterns that historically have brought torrential rain to the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent. In Arizona, a monsoon occurs when winds shift from generally eastward, coming from California and Nevada, to a southerly direction. As a result, moisture is pushed northward from Mexico.<\/p>\n

It all results in frequent thunderstorms dropping loads of rain over the state. Tucson and southern Arizona get most of it \u2014 roughly two-thirds of their yearly rainfall \u2014 while the central and northern parts of the state fill up their figurative tanks halfway.<\/p>\n

Because the rainfall sometimes comes down faster than the ground can absorb it, the storms can cause flooding. And while the rain Arizona receives during monsoon season does not affect the state\u2019s water supply, it is important for vegetation growth. The precipitation also helps limit the severity of fire season, when hot and dry conditions make wildfires more likely across the state.<\/p>\n

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Oh, and about those haboobs. Their name also comes from Arabic \u2014 specifically \u201chabb,\u201dwhich means \u201cwind.\u201d Haboobs are lens-shaped walls of dust that thunderstorms kick up ahead of their paths. They can reach 3,000 feet in height and speeds of 30 miles per hour. So, stay inside and don\u2019t try driving in one.<\/p>\n

What year was Arizona\u2019s wettest monsoon season?<\/h2>\n

Well, it wasn\u2019t any year in recent memory.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s monsoon brought 2.76 inches of rain to the Valley, which is a bit above the average of 2.43 inches. Before that, Phoenix had two remarkably dry monsoons. Phoenix got only 0.74 inches of monsoon rain in 2024, the eighth-driest monsoon in Phoenix history.\u00a0(Records go back to 1895.)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The driest came a year earlier, in 2023.\u00a0Phoenix received only 0.15 inches of rain that year, according to the NWS. The previous record holder was the 1924 monsoon season, during which Phoenix received more than double the amount of rain the city received in the summer of 2023.<\/p>\n

The wettest on record occurred in 1984. That year\u2019s monsoon brought more than 9.5 inches of rain.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the 2025 monsoon season forecast? <\/h2>\n

Praise the rain gods \u2014 this year\u2019s monsoon could be a sopping wet one.<\/p>\n

This year could see a \u201csuper\u201d El Ni\u00f1o weather pattern, which generally means wetter summer conditions for Phoenix. As such, the Valley has a 40% chance of above-normal precipitation from July through September, compared to a 33% chance of near-normal precipitation and a 27% chance of below-normal precipitation.<\/p>\n

Just when<\/em> that rain will hit remains harder to predict. Last year\u2019s above-average rainfall came almost exclusively in September. Given how hot the summer is before then \u2014 and how a good monsoon storm will cool things off for a bit \u2014 a rainy monsoon season can\u2019t get here monsoon enough.<\/p>\n

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The real start of monsoon season varies based on weather conditions in Arizona and spans the hottest months of the summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weather"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen does monsoon season start in Arizona? What you should know - Phoenix Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=141\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When does monsoon season start in Arizona? 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