LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Monsoon 2023 is underway in the Mojave Desert. This year's season of flash flooding comes on the heels of a very active monsoon in 2022. In fact, National Weather Service Meteorologist Sam Meltzer said 2022 was the most active monsoon on record in the Vegas valley, dating back to 1937.
"For 2022, it was actually one of our more active monsoon seasons. We had 26 thunderstorm days here in Las Vegas. That's a pretty big contrast to 2020, which had four thunderstorm days here in Las Vegas, which was a very inactive monsoon season," Meltzer said.
As for this year, Meltzer said he is predicting a less soggy start to monsoon.
"Right now, we don't have a strong signal one way or another for a dry monsoon versus a wet monsoon. However, because temperatures have been cooler so far this summer and we still have snowpack in some areas of the mountains, we're looking at a slower start to monsoon season," Meltzer said.
He said things could pick up later on in the summer if hurricane season becomes more active with the arrival of the El Nino pattern.
He emphasizes that it doesn't take much to create a dangerous flash flood situation in our valley.
"It only takes a storm or two to make a monsoon season. You can have an otherwise quiet monsoon season but if you have a big storm or two that comes to Las Vegas, that will be in everybody's memory for quite a while," Meltzer said. "It can be a perfectly beautiful day in the morning but then, by the afternoon, have a stormy day on our hands. So yes. These can come in quite quickly. They can catch people off guard. And unfortunately, they often do."
Each monsoon season is unique and officials urge you to stay ready for whatever may come. A big part of preparation is education and that's the focus of the flash flooding exhibit at the Springs Preserve inside the Origen Museum. It emulates monsoon in the Mojave with thunder shaking a small room there every ten minutes followed by a deluge of thousands of gallons of recycled water. The water sprays visitors, often eliciting both shock and awe -- and that's the intent.
"We just want it to be inspiring, to really shock people when they come here and to make them realize the power," senior conservation educator Abby Phillips said.
The fast-flowing waters are essential to life in the desert ecosystem, Phillips explained.
"There's animals that are dormant all year long and wait for those few weeks of monsoon season to come up. Here in the exhibit, we learn about fairy shrimp, about the red spotted toad," Phillips said.
The floods are not only life-sustaining but also life-threatening.
"There's these huge thunderstorms that come out of nowhere and it's really quickly and that water has nowhere to go but in a big flood really," Phillips said. "The desert floor, the natural soil here in the Mojave Desert, it's hard. It's impermeable. The water can't be soaked up. And then, you add asphalt and concrete to that, it makes it even worse," Phillips said.
With the ground unable to soak up water quickly here, a decent rain can turn into a destructive flood. Phillips said it's something that can take new residents by surprise but it's a way of life for longtime desert dwellers.
"We always say there's two ways to die in the desert: from thirst or from drowning," Phillips said.
