Last night’s storms were impressive, but Monsoon Season’s peak still a few weeks away

It’s not Monsoon Season yet; the Borderland got a taste of what’s to come Tuesday night. The National Weather Service designates June 15 as the first official day of the monsoon, and September 30 as the last day. Every summer –stormy, humid weather and prolonged extreme heat impact our region.

This weather shift is caused by the summer Monsoon. Rains often exceed rates of one inch per hour. This causes significant runoff and flooding of low lying areas. It is not uncommon for some arroyos or dry washes to rise several feet.

Tuesday night some areas were impacted by severe weather. Scattered showers and thunderstorms popped up on StormTRACK Weather Doppler Radar. These storms produced small hail to one half inch,heavy rains with some low area flooding, wind gusts to 50 mph and lightning. Trained weather spotters reported hail the size of dimes to nickels in northeast El Paso near highway 54 and Kenworthy. A strong thunderstorm also dropped dime size hail, strong winds with blowing dust will be in the Las Cruces area.

The active weather pattern will continue Wednesday. Thunderstorms will start to develop across the Sacramento Mountains around lunch time. Storms will develop over the lowlands this afternoon and evening. The main threat with the storms will be heavy rainfall, hail, lightning and strong downbursts winds.

Download the ABC-7 StormTRACK Weather App, track storms with the interactive radar.