Monsoons by Irene Shonle

If you haven’t lived in Colorado or the Southwest for very long, you may think that monsoons only occur in India or tropical areas.   And even through the late 1970s, there was serious debate about whether a monsoon truly existed in North America. But we do have actual monsoons here -- they are defined as large-scale wind and rainfall shifts in the summer. The monsoons bring beneficial summer moisture to the Southwestern states. We count on the monsoons to arrive sometime in early-mid July here in the mountains, relying on the cooling clouds building in the afternoons, and the brief or torrential rains to water our gardens and wildflowers.   But, the monsoons have a dark side to them as well, bringing dangerous lightning and the potential for flash floods.   And this year, the monsoons have been late to the table, and have not brought that much rain (at least so far to Gilpin County). How do monsoons work? As the summer heats up, the land warms faster than the Pacific Ocean. This te