Monsoonal Mythbusting: Why Southern Colorado Isn’t In a Monsoon…Yet

(COLORADO SPRINGS) — It’s not uncommon to hear some Coloradoans refer to “the monsoon” when afternoon thunderstorms become almost a daily occurrence. However, this is not the case for every time we start to see frequent showers and thunderstorms in the summer months.

When meteorologists refer to a monsoon, it typically has less to do with the amount of precipitation and more to do with a shift in weather patterns from winter to spring and summer.

In winter, the temperature on land is cooler than in the oceans, and the air is directed to the oceans where it becomes warm and moist. When that happens, the air rises and creates an area of low pressure and thunderstorms over the ocean and high pressure over land.

In spring and summer during a monsoon pattern, the opposite occurs. Air moves towards land, a low-pressure system forms — typically over the Western U.S. — and a high-pressure system is over the ocean or on land but near a large-scale body of water like the Gulf of Mexico, where the flow of wind around the high can pull in tropical moisture.

In other words, meteorologists are looking for that specific pattern in order to call it a monsoon and not just an influx in precipitation. According to the Colorado Climate Center, monsoonal season typically starts in late July through August.

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