PHOENIX, June 15 (UPI) -- Monday marked the beginning of Arizona's monsoon season, a 3 1/2-month period of potentially devastating winds, dust and flash flooding, authorities said.
While the weather has been mild, turbulent weather is sure to arrive, Leslie Wanek, a spokeswoman for the National Weather Service told The Arizona Republic.
"The flow we need to get from the south cannot get into place," Wanek said. "But that's because it has been so cool. Enjoy that for as long as you can."
The monsoon season, which ends Sept. 30, occurs when rising air from intense heat creates a vacuum of low pressure, which pulls cooler, moister air from the Gulf of California. Cooler air clashing with hot air triggers thunderstorms, including violent microbursts.
One Arizona resident, Harry Woods, 46, of Tempe, suggests people stop trying to decipher the weather.
"The weather will be what it is, whether or not we try to define it," Woods said. "I just call it summer in Arizona."
