LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Although thunderstorms are still possible well after, experts typically consider the monsoon in the Las Vegas valley to be over around the end of September.
With monsoon 2023 in the books, you may be wondering how this season compared to monsoons in the past. Good Morning Las Vegas anchor Anjali Patel went to the National Weather Service's office in Las Vegas to find out.
Warning Coordination Meteorologist Dan Berc said monsoon 2023 was the ninth wettest on record here since 1937, with 2.88 inches of rainfall recorded at the airport. In 2022, we saw 1.77 inches during the monsoon, Berc said.
Keep in mind that rainfall totals vary depending on where you live in the valley, but for record purposes, the NWS uses the metrics at Harry Reid International.
"It was considerably wetter than last year," Berc said about this year's monsoon. "This is a weird year. A lot of our rain came in short bursts."
Last year, we did have more days when thunder was recorded at Harry Reid International, with 26 "thunderstorm days." This monsoon, Berc said, we saw 19 thunderstorm days. So we had far more rainfall this monsoon; it was just packed into fewer days.
"This year, our precipitation was condensed into just a few events that really brought us a lot of precipitation, while in last year's monsoon, we had kind of a normal distribution from the beginning to the end of the monsoon, where we saw smaller amounts, but on many more days," Berc said.
Berc said monsoon 2023 started off quiet, with an unusually cool June. But as temperatures heated up and hurricane season became more active, we saw more monsoon rain later in the summer, most of which came in concentrated deluges. The bulk of this monsoon's rainfall came during two rain events: the flooding heading into Labor Day weekend and the remnants of Hilary, which hit Mount Charleston historically hard.
"In terms of flooding and its effect on human life, we'd certainly like to see less precipitation over a longer period of time," he said.
Before last year, Berc said the Las Vegas area hadn't seen more than an inch of total rainfall during the monsoon since 2014. This means the last two monsoons have certainly trended on the wetter side.
"We had many, many dry years leading into last year's monsoon, and now we've matched it and exceeded it," Berc said.
