The Monsoon Season began Sunday under the timeline created for it by the National Weather Service, which has set the end date of Monsoon season for September 30. The summer storms begin when weather patterns shift northward, which changes wind patterns from the usual west winds we have most of the year to shift to a southerly or southeasterly direction. Meteorologist Mark O’Malley says it’s hard to predict monsoon activity.

“There’s several conflicting signals out there,” O’Malley said. “There’s some signals that would indicate that we’re going to have less thunderstorm activity this year, however, there’s other signals that say we would have more thunderstorm activity this year.”

O’Malley says monsoon storms bring a lot of danger, starting with the dust that is kicked up by storms coming from the Tucson area and moving up toward the Valley. The metro Phoenix area gets nearly half its annual rainfall during monsoon season.