It turns out no monsoons means a lot less lightning strikes for Arizona.

Arizona has now seen the least amount of lightning strikes through August 12 of any monsoon season since 1988, according to the National Weather Service in Phoenix. 

This year, Arizona saw 110,000 strikes compared to the 385,000 strikes the state saw last year. 

So why are the number of lightning strikes down? Well, simply because Arizona is having much less thunderstorms, Phoenix NSW meteorologist Martin Percha said. 

The heat is expected to continue pushing away the monsoon storms for the upcoming week. An excessive heat warning is also in effect through Thursday. 

The NWS tracks lightning strikes by using a detection system that receives an electrical signal from the strike, Percha said.

All areas across Arizona show below average number of lightning strikes over the past 10 years.  

Breaking News Intern Aubrey Carpenter can be reached at [email protected] and can be followed on Twitter @aubreycarp1.

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