The 2021 monsoon season was one to remember

The difference a year makes.

In 2020, the monsoon was a no-show, leading to the driest monsoon season on record and worsening a historic drought in the Southwest, according to the National Weather Service in Phoenix.

Luckily, the monsoon returned in 2021. In fact, it was one of the wetter seasons on record across the Southwest, according to the weather service. Average rainfall during the monsoon months of June through September across the region was 7.93 inches (good for the 20th wettest on record — since 1895), the wettest since 2014, and well above the 1991-2020 average of 6.39 inches, forecasters said.

Maricopa recorded six to eight inches of rain. NWS states that 30 to 60 percent of annual rainfall comes during the monsoon.

Several storms led to flooding and extensive wind damage in the region.

On June 22, a fleeting storm with strong, damaging winds hit some areas of Maricopa, the storm’s heavy winds displaced a mobile home in Hidden Valley, damaged the east façade of the Maricopa Library and Cultural Center and blew away at least one residential backyard shed.

On the night of July 9, strong thunderstorms rolled through Maricopa, knocking out power to homes in several neighborhoods, including Glennwilde and Homestead. A lightning strike zapped transformers at a substation at the northwest corner of Honeycutt and Porter roads, Electrical District No. 3 officials said.

A night later, more thunderstorms — with more heavy rain, strong winds, and thunder and lightning — rumbled through the city. It was preceded by a dust storm.

One prolonged rainstorm on Aug. 13 took the lives of two people and necessitated the rescue of dozens more — many from their rooftops — in Gila Bend, a town of about 2,000 people about 40 miles west of Maricopa. Storm cleanup efforts drew more than 100 volunteers from across the region, including many from Maricopa, including Mayor Christian Price and Realtor Dayv Morgan.

The most damaging storm of the season in Maricopa may have been the microburst that ripped through on Sept. 18. In addition to a deluge of rain, intense winds knocked down 34 electrical poles — all fairly-new and in a single line in the western part of the city — snapping many in half 2-10 feet off the ground, an ED3 spokesperson said. Nearly 800 customers near Ralston Road and State Route 238 lost power.

The active Monsoon wasn’t all bad.

As of June 15, about two-thirds of Pinal County (central and eastern) was in “exceptional drought,” according to data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. Maricopa and roughly the western third of the county was considered in “extreme” drought.

By Nov. 30, the entire county had improved to “moderate” drought status.

This year in review was first published in the January edition of InMaricopa magazine.