This past August was the county’s 18th driest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Integrated Drought Information System, which monitors precipitation. Its records date back to 1895. Maricopa County received 0.61 inches of rain in August, which is 0.86 inches below the average for that month.
The entire summer has been nearly as dry. Maricopa County also experienced its 20th-driest summer — defined as June through August — with 3.44 inches of rain. That’s 0.75 inches below average.
The official precipitation and temperature rankings for Summer 2024 have been released. As a whole, AZ and CA had their hottest summer on record while rainfall varied from near to below normal with the greatest below normal departures across the western deserts. #azwx #cawx pic.twitter.com/RZQhpP3Yf0
— NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) September 10, 2024
For all of 2024, though, precipitation in Maricopa County was the 45th highest in the last 130 years. The county has received 6.21 inches of rain this year, 0.21 inches above the average for the first eight months of a year.
Statewide, precipitation was below average during the summer but not quite as bad as it was in Maricopa County specifically. The National Weather Service ranked Arizona’s summer as the 41st driest on record. However, while the summer was dry, the first seven months of the year constituted the 39th-wettest period since 1895, according to the NIDIS.
Though rainfall totals haven’t been historically bad, temperatures have. The NWS noted that this summer was the hottest on record in Arizona, with near-record averages across the American West. All Arizona counties, excepting Cochise, experienced their warmest summer in modern memory.
