Albuquerque’s 2021 monsoon season ends

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Overall, this year’s monsoon season wasn’t too bad for Albuquerque and it was definitely better than last year.

This summer, most areas around Albuquerque picked up between 3 to 5 inches of rainfall. Areas near the Foothills performed the best – receiving up to 8 inches of rainfall.

Areas around Rio Rancho and Bernalillo were pretty dry again, only receiving between 2 to 3 inches of rainfall.

From June 15 to Sept. 30 the Sunport recorded 32 days of measurable rainfall.

However, only two of those days dropped over a half-inch.

On July 20, a thunderstorm over eastern parts of town dropped some very heavy rainfall, with rainfall rates of 3 to 4 inches per hour.

This storm sent water rushing through the arroyos.

"The amount of water that was in the flood channel this afternoon could quite possibly be some of the deepest, fastest-moving water that I’ve seen,” said Tom Ruiz, spokesperson for Albuquerque Fire Rescue.

5 people were swept away and, unfortunately, only 2 were rescued.

Then just a week later another strong thunderstorm producing heavy rainfall that resulted in two more people being swept away, and only one person was rescued.

According to the National Weather Service, this is the deadliest monsoon in the Albuquerque area in recent memory.

Two of the best monsoon seasons in Albuquerque over the past 15 years were in 2013 and in 2006.

During the 2013 monsoon, everyone in the metro picked up at least 5 inches of rainfall and some had more than 10 inches. It was 2013 when the Sunport had its wettest 7 day stretch of rainfall since June 1933 – a little over 3.10 inches of rain recorded.

2006 was the wettest monsoon on record for the Albuquerque metro, with almost 9 and a half inches of rain recorded at the Sunport from June 15 to Sept. 30.