July climate highlights

For the state of New Mexico the month of July was the 40th driest on record. We averaged 1.98 inches as a state in July compared to the 20th century average of 2.43". A few areas were fortunate to receive well above normal precipitation such as in the San Juan Mountains and around the Valles Caldera. The northeastern portion of the state did not see much rain as the map below shows. This map is from the NOAA AHPS website. Most of the southwestern part of the state recorded below average rain last month.

The first 7 months of 2012 were the 8th driest on record.  I saw this morning that the CPC daily climate headline says that the "onset of El Nino is likely to be seen during Aug-Sep-Oct." similar to previous forecasts.