Getting the Record Straight
Your October issue contained an article about our monsoon rain totals that said that the 14.5 inch recorded average from the two observers in Patagonia that enter data on rainlog.org “may make this year’s monsoon season total a record high.” Even newcomers to the area that ask about big rain years in Patagonia would quickly hear reference to 1983 (and 1993) and the floods of that year. Attached is the NOAA Monthly Climatalogical Summary for 1983, which shows the total precipitation for the monsoon “season” to be 17.24 inch. Back then the monsoon was defined by dew point temperatures but is now defined by dates, June 15 to Sept. 30. By the way, I am one of the observers that enter data on rainlog.org. I live across the street from Sonoita Creek at Fourth and Pennsylvania and the other observer is only a short distance away, but up the hill towards the mesa below Red Mountain. That small distance and difference in elevation produces surprising disparity in rainfall amounts. There are also recorders in the Elgin and Lake Patagonia areas. I encourage readers in outlying areas who keep weather records to enter their data on rainlog.org in order to make available a more comprehensive portrayal of precipitation in Santa Cruz County.
— Robin Baxter