Monsoon Brings Rain Chances to Southwest U.S.

Flash flood watches are in effect for most the southwest U.S. as an area of surface low pressure over Nevada will allow for southerly winds to pull monsoonal moisture in this region. Check out the latest advisory map from the NWS showing a large area of counties shaded in dark green which indicates a flash flood watch. Additionally, a few flood advisories and flash flood warnings are in effect in New Mexico.

Showers and thunderstorms have already produced precipitation in these areas today, and rain chances will continue overnight into tomorrow before drier air moves back in.

While 0.5″-1″ of rainfall would usually not cause too many problems here, areas in the desert southwest are more prone to flash flooding. This is due to the fact that most locations in this region see significantly less rainfall than southern Kentucky. As a result, when a storm moves through an area and produces heavy rain, much of the precipitation runs off instead of soaking into the ground. Lots of stormwater runoff can lead to flooding issues in these locations.