“Far on the desert rim the thunder breaks
And white clouds turn to steel above the plain.
Now it will rain.”
~ Sylvia Lewis Kinney, “August,” Arizona Highways, 1968

We have all seen those iconic paintings of the lone cowboy on his horse in the desert with big puffy clouds behind him. Anyone who has spent any time in the desert know those big beautiful clouds often will, without warning, begin to dump buckets of rain onto the desert floor.

Now is what is known as monsoon season, which is from June 15 to Sept. 30. The term monsoon generally refers to the seasonal reversal in atmospheric low-level circulations, particularly the surface winds and associated precipitation, resulting in a pattern of wet summers and dry winters, according to National Weather Service.

California’s mountains and deserts have this type of monsoon season; in fact, Southern California had its first seasonal monsoon weather event in June with rain accompanied by thunder and lightning.

“It’s like a very hot pot on the stove and the steam that comes up and interacts with the terrain,” said meteorologist Todd Hall, NWS.

While California does have monsoonal weather in the mountains and deserts there is one area that has an uncanny season that is so exact you can almost set your clock by it.

Sierra Vista, Arizona is about three hours from Phoenix, an hour outside of Tucson, 20 miles from the Mexico border and about 20 miles from Tombstone. Sierra Vista has a lot of desert, cactus and mesquite. It is the type of landscape that can be found in all of those iconic paintings. The white puffy clouds float in a light blue sky that causes desert lovers to look up letting the sun wash over their faces. They close their eyes and, without warning, rainwater is dumped on them so fast they can hardly breathe.

And being in a car is not that much better, especially if you are on your way to or from Tombstone. The rollercoaster-inspired road has high hills and low dips that when the monsoon storm hits fill up with water … a lot of water.

Sierra Vista has had a really strong monsoon season so far. As of July 11, they have recorded 2.42 inches of rain; its average is 1.16 inches.

The daily downpour seems to happen around 4 p.m. almost every afternoon during monsoon season. And it appears no matter how long you live there and are used to this phenomenon there are some who continue to forget and get caught in the rain (love you little brother).

Local foothills may be seeing monsoon-like rain on Thursday depending on where the high pressure is; however, it does look like Big Bear will more than likely be experiencing that monsoonal rain on Thursday evening, according to Hall.

Local temperatures will be near 90 today, Thursday, and in the mid 90s on Friday and Saturday, and a little cooler on Sunday though still near 90.