Record-breaking monsoon season ends in Southwest

This year’s Southwest monsoon season will be remembered for unusually intense storms that brought months’ worth of rain in just one day. Some areas in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico received more rain in a day than in a typical season, the National Weather Service said. The rains caused flooding, sending water into homes and closing roads throughout the region. In New Mexico, metropolitan Albuquerque saw its 14th wettest monsoon on record. More than 5.6 inches of rain fell at the Albuquerque International Sunport, the National Weather Service said. A river flooded in Carlsbad last week, forcing the evacuation of about 110 homes. In September, a storm caused by remnants of Hurricane Odile led to the death of an oil field worker near Loving. The start of 2014 was extremely dry for the state. By July, however, with the arrival of the monsoon season, New Mexico saw above normal precipitation for the first time, which brought the yearly average statewide precipitation up to 80 percent of normal, according to the National Weather Service. The monsoon fizzled a bit in August, but helped bring the state’s average precipitation up to 82 percent of normal. September brought extremely wet weather to Southern New Mexico, but much less for central and northern portions of the state...more