Tucson is in the midst of its third-driest monsoon season since official weather record-keeping started here in 1895, the National Weather Service says.
The city has officially recorded just 1.93 inches of rain this season, as of Aug. 21.
Normally, at this point in the season, we’d have had 3.72 inches.
Which begs the question, what were the two driest complete monsoon seasons on record in Tucson?
The driest: 1.59 inches in 1924.
The second driest: 1.62 inches in 2020.
As for our current outlook, above-normal temperatures are expected through the weekend, and there’s an extreme heat warning in effect through Friday.
There is also a blowing dust advisory from 4 to 9 p.m. today between Tucson and Phoenix along the I-10 corridor due to elevated winds.
People are also reading…
Photos: Monsoon 2025 in Tucson
Foot traffic along Congress Street moves under a red monsoon sky as dusk settles over Hotel Congress and downtown Tucson, Ariz., July 18, 2025.
A pedestrian walks by along Church Avenue at Alameda Street with the sun going down after a monsoon storm skirted along the far eastern edge of Tucson, Ariz., before quickly dying out, July 8, 2025.
Kids take a ride on playground equipment at Joaquin Murrieta Park in Tucson, Ariz. under clouds that moved in early in the evening on June 30, 2025.
The last time rain was recorded at Tucson’s airport — the official location for weather data here — was .1-inches on July 22. This year’s monsoon has officially dropped less than two inches of rain since June 1, the start of the city’s monsoon period.
Kelly Presnell
Garrett Asher uses an umbrella to shield himself from the rain during a visit at Reid Park Zoo, 3400 East Zoo Court, Tucson, Ariz., July 16, 2025.
A truck drives through flooded streets as heavy rain showers hit the city of Tucson, West Fort Lowell Road, Tucson, Ariz., July 3, 2025.
Petra Thompson uses a garbage bag to protect her hair from a monsoon storm that rolled over the westside in Tucson, Ariz. on July 2, 2025. Thompson said she her just done her hair and wanted to keep it dry as she crossed Grande Ave at St. Mary’s Road.
Guests explore Reid Park Zoo as rainfall continues through Southern Arizona, 3400 East Zoo Court, Tucson, Ariz., July 16, 2025.
A pedestrian picks his way over the pool gathered in the gutters of Stone Avenue and Pennington Street as rain from the first monsoon storm of the season drops on Tucson, Ariz., July 2, 2025.
A City of Tucson bus rider tries to keep dry as heavy rain and hail hit the city, Oracle and Fort Lowell stop, July 3, 2025.
A cyclists maneuvers through the puddles flooding the bike lane along Stone Avenue as the year’s first monsoon storm drops rain on Tucson, Ariz., July 2, 2025.
People exit Reid Park Zoo as rainfall continues through Southern Arizona, 3400 East Zoo Court, Tucson, Ariz., July 16, 2025.
The “Balancing Act” sculpture poses underneath the dark cloudy skies as rain showers pass through Southern Arizona, 4502 North First Avenue, Tucson, Ariz., July 2, 2025.
Traffic moves along St. Mary’s Road as the first monsoon hits the westside of Tucson, Ariz. on July 2, 2025.
A pedestrian braves the rain, walking along Church Avenue at Pennington Street in the first monsoon storm of the season over Tucson, Ariz., July 2, 2025.
Kelly Presnell
A man crosses Scott Avenue at Pennington Street with the rain falling on Tucson, Ariz., July 2, 2025, in the year’s first monsoon storm.
A pedestrian, equipped for the rain, makes his way along Congress Street in the first monsoon storm of the season over Tucson, Ariz., July 2, 2025.
Kelly Presnell
A man waits for the bus as heavy showers begin to pour in Tucson, North Oracle Road, Tucson, Ariz., July 3, 2025.
Afternoon traffic continues down North Oracle Road, as heavy rain showers hit the city, July 3, 2025.
Dark storm clouds roll through Southern Arizona, North Oracle Road, Tucson, Ariz., July 2, 2025.
The Colorado River is vanishing before our eyes. The nation’s two largest reservoirs are at dangerously low levels. This was one of them, Lake Mead, In 2001 and then in 2015. In just fourteen years, the lake dropped 143 feet and fires are devastating forests and homes from Oregon to Arizona.2022 has been a year of drought, but officials say the west has actually been in a megadrought since the year 2000.Why is it so dry out west? Should we blame climate change? And most importantly for the 79 million Americans that live in the U.S. West: Is this the new normal? Scientists have answered these questions by studying the silent witnesses to climate’s annual fluctuations in trees. Fat rings usually mean wet years, thin rings mean dry years. Ancient trees have revealed that the West has suffered periods of drought for centuries, long before giant dams or human-caused climate change.But in February scientists wrote a paper in the journal Nature Climate Change putting the ongoing megadrought in historical perspective. SEE MORE: Weather Helping, But Threat From Western Fires PersistsThey found drought conditions in the west haven’t been this severe in at least 1200 years. One driver of this megadrought is high temperatures. The blue line indicates the average temperature since 1895. Meanwhile, since 2000, the west has had mostly low precipitation. Notably, there’s a shortage of snow. Snowpack is more valuable than rain, say scientists, since it moistens soils for months into the summer as it steadily melts.Robert Davies is an associate professor at Utah State University. “The snowpack is definitely declining over the last 40 years, particularly in the lower and mid elevations,” said Davies. There’s another factor, what scientists call vapor pressure deficit, or more simply, dry air. Over the last 22 years, the dry air has grown thirstier and thirstier, sucking moisture right out of the ground. As the drought has worsened, municipalities have desperately tapped their wells for water, but that’s putting the system at severe risk. For example, in California’s Central Valley, government data shows that groundwater is getting deeper and deeper to access. So how much of the blame can we pin on climate change? For the Nature paper, the scientists did two experiments using 29 climate models. In one they measured how a warming planet had exacerbated the megadrought. On the other, they simulated what soil moisture would be like if climate change had never happened. The warming planet, they found, made the drought worse by 19%. A few years of better snow and rain could break the western megadrought, the report says. But its authors expect the U.S. west’s climate to become more and more arid. In the report it says the “increasingly dry baseline state” makes “future megadroughts increasingly likely” which will change the west for generations to come.