Drought Status
Drought Status
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: August 2020
The monsoon season has been weak and intermittent across the state and virtually non-existent throughout most of northern Arizona. As a result, the entire state experiences some level of drought condition.
The record and near-record dryness have led to expansion of Severe Drought (D2) across 40% of Arizona, compared to 26% a month ago.
Extreme Drought (D3) conditions, which were absent at the beginning of the month, now cover 42% of the state, throughout northwestern and east central Arizona.
In addition, Yuma, La Paz, and parts of central Apache county, which experienced no drought or Abnormally Dry (D0) conditions, now experience Moderate Drought (D1).
The end of the monsoon season is fast approaching and there are currently no anticipated rain events, so drought improvements are not likely in the near future.
At the end of each month, the MTC produces the web-based, 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: April - June 2020
The long-term drought map shows some drought degradation across the state with the expansion of Severe Drought (D2) and Extreme Drought (D3) conditions in northeastern and central Arizona, and in Graham, Greenlee and southern Apache counties.
While this winter’s precipitation was beneficial, it ended early and was followed by extremely high temperatures that reduced runoff and streamflow.
The last two monsoon seasons were relatively dry across most of the state, though southeastern Arizona had favorable monsoon precipitation the past two years. There are currently no strong climate model trends to indicate how wet the monsoon may be this summer.
This report was prepared by the Arizona Drought Monitoring Technical Committee, July 7, 2020. Arizona's long-term drought status map is updated quarterly and the next update in early July will reflect the conditions of April, May and June. 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.