Sonora weather

From Glossary of Meteorology



sonora weather[edit | edit source]

A term used by old-timers living in the coastal plain of Southern California to describe summer episodes of hot, humid weather associated with widespread middle and high cloudiness and thunderstorm activity, sometimes intense, over the mountains and deserts to the east.

Summer thunderstorms, unusual over the coastal plain of southern California, occur during such episodes. Sonora weather is a particular manifestation of the Southwest monsoon, occurring when the more typical summer monsoonal flow of midlevel moisture into Arizona and New Mexico (from Sonora State, Mexico, and points south) is shunted westward.


Copyright 2024 American Meteorological Society (AMS). For permission to reuse any portion of this work, please contact permissions@ametsoc.org. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 U.S. Code § 107) or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S.Copyright Act (17 USC § 108) does not require AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a website or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, require written permission or a license from AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy statement.