#MediaMonday – Royal Norman

Friday was the first official day of summer, so we thought it would be appropriate for today’s #MediaMonday to be from someone who has some in-depth knowledge about Arizona’s weather, Royal Norman of KTVK-TV, Arizona’s Family’s chief meteorologist. He works weekday nights, appearing on “Good Evening Arizona” and “3TV News at Nine.”

When he started at the station in 1984, fresh out of ASU with a degree in meteorology-climatology, he was the weekend meteorologist, earning an American Meteorological Society Seal of Approval for both television and radio broadcasting.

He hasn’t always worked nights.  In 1994, he was teamed with Jodi Applegate and was part of the crew that launched “Good Morning Arizona.” Nobody knew at the time it would become one of the top-rated local morning shows in the country.

Now, back to the weather.

Royal, time to share:

The summer thunderstorm season, aka, the Arizona Monsoon is upon us. Meteorologists all around the state are gearing up for this major change in Arizona’s weather. The Arizona Monsoon is part of the North American monsoon, which produces summer rains from Mexico to the northern Rockies, so it’s not just “our” monsoon. It impacts about 20-milllion people north and south of the border.

So what are we expecting for Monsoon 2013? The outlook is for hotter than normal temperatures and about average rainfall.  But filling in some of the details, it looks like we may have a “slow” start to the monsoon, not seeing much rain early. That could result in another bunch of dust storms. Then, when the rain comes, it most likely will come in bunches, over several weeks, before fading out rather quickly.

Most of all, we know the monsoon can be fickle.  When my wife and I drove into Phoenix in 1981 for the first time, we encountered a huge dust storm, something we had never seen before. Surely, we thought, it will rain shortly. It did not and we were hooked on Arizona weather.

You can follow me on Twitter: @RoyalNorman.