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Drought Status
Drought Status
Drought Status
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Arizona Drought Status
The Arizona Drought Monitoring Technical Committee confers weekly to advise the U.S. Drought Monitor authors on the current drought conditions in Arizona, and makes recommendations about the position of the drought boundaries for Arizona. The U.S. Drought Monitor is the official record of drought for Federal drought relief claims. Information used by the MTC in advising the Drought Monitor authors includes numerous drought indices, precipitation and stream flow data, and impacts data. Every Thursday, the Drought Status web page automatically updates with the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map of Arizona.
Monthly Drought Status Summary: March 2018
Statewide drought conditions have worsened during March and 45% of the state is now in Extreme Drought (D3) compared with 9% a month ago.
A series of weak storms passed through Arizona, however snow totals were insignificant. The southern half of the state remained dry and northern Arizona only received scattered light precipitation.
Rangeland conditions are very poor with little forage, and water hauling for both livestock and wildlife has begun in many parts of the state.
The continued dryness has led to drought declarations on the Navajo Nation and in Yuma County.
At the end of each month, the MTC produces the short-term drought status update based on U.S. Drought Monitor's maps for the past four weeks. An email with the latest map and summary is sent to interested parties.
Quarterly Drought Status Update: October - December 2017
The previous long-term drought map (for Jul.-Sep., 2017) showed the Upper Colorado, Lower Colorado and the Salt River watersheds in no drought. The San Pedro was in Moderate Drought (D1) and the rest of the watersheds were Abnormally Dry (D0).
The dry winter caused expansion of drought conditions across the state. East central White Mountains, central and southwestern Arizona, and along the lower Colorado River experience the worst long-term drought conditions, as can be seen in the map. Lack of winter storms has caused the water equivalent from the meager snowpack to rank with Arizona’s driest years, including 2000 and 2006.
La Niña conditions will be waning through the spring, hopefully signaling some change in the pattern. However, precipitation totals across the state lessen significantly heading later into the spring months.
This report was prepared by the Arizona Drought Monitoring Technical Committee, February 3, 2017. Arizona's long-term drought status map is updated quarterly and the next update in early May will reflect the conditions of January, February and March. The long-term drought status for each watershed is determined by comparing the precipitation and streamflow percentiles for the past 24, 36 and 48 months to a 40-year historical record.