The same thing happened in the monsoon regions of Africa and Asia, according to Higgins. Nev. Normal for the period is 1.74 inches. It's really strange. The main reason for the dry weather here is that the high pressure system that normally dominates our weather has been perched too far to the west, said Charlie Liles, head of the National Weather Service's Albuquerque office. That blocks the normal moist flow from the south, bringing us dry air from the north instead.
Winds rotating clockwise around the high pressure area dominate our weather.
That high pressure area has to be in the right spot to deliver the wet air. Once the moisture gets here, air heated by the sun lofts it into the upper atmosphere, creating the towering thunderstorms that dominate July and August weather here. That's been happening almost every day, Liles noted, but without enough moisture in the air, the storms have been anemic. The global connection between our monsoons and those in Asia and Africa seems to have something to do with sea surface temperature around the planet, Kousky said. The difference between the temperature in the ocean and on land is a big part of what drives the monsoons.