06 August 2004

The summer monsoon of the Southwest United States

Forrest M. Mims III

Summer in the Southwest United States is monsoon season. Large thunderstorms are common each afternoon in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.

Participants at the July 2004 GLOBE conference in Boulder, Colorado, were treated to a spectacular display of cumulonimbus thunderstorms over the plains around Denver the final evening of the meeting. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) hosted a gathering that evening. Dr. Margaret LeMone, GLOBE's chief scientist, is a meteorologist and cloud specialist. She explained the details of supercell formation as we watched in awe.