Monsoon precipitation accounts for a substantial portion of annual precipitation in northwest Mexico and the

Southwestern United States. Most of these areas receive over half their annual precipitation from the monsoon.
[3]
Many desert plants are adapted to take advantage of this brief wet season. Because of the monsoons,
the Sonoran and Mojave are considered relatively "wet" when ranked among other deserts such as the Sahara,
and helps fuel the Chihuahuan Desert's extreme diversity.

Monsoons often play a role in reducing wildfire threat by providing moisture at higher elevations during the wildfire
season.[10] Heavy monsoon rain can lead to excess winter plant growth, in turn a summer wildfire risk. A lack of
monsoon rain can hamper summer seeding, reducing excess winter plant growth but worsening drought.

Flash flooding is a serious danger during the monsoon. Dry washes can become raging rivers in an instant, even
when no storms are visible as a storm can cause a flash flood tens of miles away. [11] Lightning strikes are also a
significant danger. Because it is dangerous to be caught in the open when these storms suddenly appear, many
golf courses in Arizona have thunderstorm warning systems. In Albuquerque, flash flooding from storms funneled
into the Rio Grande Valley by the Sandia-Manzano mountain range has prompted the city to develop an extensive
system of concrete-lined arroyos and retention structures, similar to the flood control channels in the Los Angeles
River basin.[12]

Once the monsoon is underway, mountain ranges, including the Sierra Madre Occidental, the Mogollon Rim, and
the Rio Grande Rift ranges provide a focusing mechanism for the daily development of thunderstorms. Thus much
of the monsoon rainfall occurs in mountainous terrain. For example, monsoon rainfall in the Sierra Madre Occiden-
tal typically ranges from 10 to 15 inches. Since the southwest U.S. is at the northern fringe of the monsoon, precip-
itation is less and tends to be more variable. Areas farther west of the core monsoon region, namely California and
Baja California, typically receive only spotty monsoon-related rainfall. In those areas, the intense solar heating is
not strong enough to overcome a continual supply of cold water from the North Pacific Ocean moving down the
west coast of North America. Winds do turn toward the land in these areas, but the cool moist air actually stabi-
lizes the atmosphere.[3] The monsoon pushes as far west as the Peninsular Ranges and Transverse Ranges of
Southern California, but rarely reaches the coastal strip. As shown in the panorama below, a wall of thunder-
storms, only a half-hour's drive away, is a common sight from the sunny skies along the coast during the monsoon.

Monsoonal thunderstorms as seen from El Cajon, California

Variability[edit]

An isolated thunderstorm rolls through Wah Wah Valley, Utah.

This type of monsoonal pattern is very common in the late summer of the southwest US.
Rainfall during the monsoon is not continuous. It varies considerably, depending on a variety of factors. There are
usually distinct "burst" periods of heavy rain during the monsoon, and "break" periods with little or no rain. [3] The
variability is difficult to understand and predict, because it results from the complex interactions between atmo-
spheric circulation features at both the synoptic (100 to 1000 km spatially, 1 day to 1 week, temporally)
and mesoscale (several km to 100 km, hours to one day temporally) and the extremely varied topography. The
larger-scale atmospheric motions may control the distribution of water vapor and the general stability or instability
(that is, the tendency to form storms) in the atmosphere; nevertheless, local topographic effects are critical to the
geographic and even temporal distribution of convective activity.[2]

The monsoon ridge is almost as strong as the one which develops over Asia during the summer. However, since
the lower level moisture flow is not as persistent as in the Indian monsoon, the upper level steering pattern and
disturbances around the ridge are critical for influencing where thunderstorms develop on any given day. The ex-
act strength and position of the subtropical ridge also governs how far north the tropical easterly winds aloft can
spread. If the ridge is too close to a particular area, the sinking air at its center suppresses thunderstorms and can
result in a significant monsoon "break." If the ridge is too far away or too weak, the east winds around the high are
inadequate to bring tropical moisture into the mountains of Mexico and southwest U.S. However, if the ridge sets
up in a few key locations, widespread and potentially severe thunderstorms can develop.[3]

Monsoon variability from one summer to the next is substantial, and exceeds the normal monsoon seasonal pre-
cipitation at most locations. For example, the normal monsoon precipitation at Tucson, Arizona is 6.06 inches
(154 mm). The driest monsoon season measured 1.59 inches (40 mm), and the wettest measured 13.84 inches
(352 mm).[13]

Research since 2010 has investigated the possible causes behind North American monsoon variability. The fol-
lowing factors affect the North American monsoon:

 Sea surface temperature anomalies

 Large-scale circulation patterns
 Previous year's precipitation
 Location of the intertropical convergence zone
 Variability in the Gulf of California moisture surges
None of these factors can perfectly predict the variability. These factors are related to each other and are not inde-
pendent. For example, sea surface temperatures affect all the other fact