Weather - Precipitation

Meteorology versus Meteors

If a meteorologist studies weather, what do we call a person who studies meteors? In the days of ancient Greeks, meteorology was the study of the atmosphere, and anything that came out of it - rain, sleet, snow, hail. So, not too surprising that meteorology became the study of weather. But what about meteors? The science of meteors is called Meteorics. Accordingly, a student of meteors is a meteoriticist. A tongue twister to be sure.

Portal 10-Day Weather Forecast

Local Weather Stations

David Churchill's ASV Station

Bruce Weertman’s Portal Peak Ranch Weather Station

Limestone Mountain

Cave Creek Ranch

Randy Pfeiffer’s Portal Ridge Weather Station

Monthly Summary

Check Out The Arizona Drought Monitor

(Scroll down to last photo)

Yes, we had a few good rains in July and August and it did look, for a while, like a promising monsoon season. While there is NO definition of a monsoon that involves a minimum amount of precipitation, I have the official Wizard Of Portal definition. By mid September, there must be enough water in our creek to hold the annual regatta. Look at the photos below. How we doin’?

Check out the drought monitor and our recent haboob photos at the bottom of this page. We are in the Extreme-Exceptional drought categories.

Our Annual NONsoon?

Ray Brooks’ 20 Year Log Of Cave Creek

For the past twenty years the longest dry run of the creek not flowing over Foothills Rd was 476 days ending August 10 2021.

That record was broken four days ago August 25, 2025 and is ongoing today at 480 days.

The longest wet streak of the creek flowing in that 20 year period is 271 consecutive days ending April 15, 2012.

Hurricane Odille in the Fall of 2014 made the creek run for only 105 consecutive days ending November 10, 2014.

Portal, AZ - Rodeo, NM