TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN9) — The National Weather Service is celebrating 25 years at the University of Arizona with a look back at some weather history.
Warning Coordination Meteorologist Ken Drozd says a lot has changed since the National Weather Service moved from the airport to the university of Arizona.
“The average temperature has gone up about 2 degrees so that is a significant amount of warming,” he said.
There have been amazing advances in technology along with wild swings in the weather. Tucson has experienced wind, snow, record rain and flash flooding. One example is late July 2006 when rainfall rates rivalled events in 83 and 93.
“We had some very strong flows within our wash system,” said Drozd. “But we didn’t have as much damage, because of all the lessons learned from the earlier 20th century floods.”
Recent years may be some of the most eventful with late July 2021 storms reminiscent of 2006. February 2019 saw over an inch of snow at the Tucson airport and 3 to 7 inches of snow in some spots south and east of the metro area.
“I remember being here for that one and sweeping snow off the satellite dish so our data would keep coming into our system.”
And course Monsoon 2021 and 2020 were on opposite ends of the spectrum.
“Going from the second driest monsoon to third wettest monsoon, you average that out it comes out close to normal,” joked Drozd.
Drozd says there is no reason to think the next 25 years won’t be just as eventful as the last.
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