Arizona Drought Status

Moderate drought or  more severe drought covers nearly all of Arizona, according to the April 17 update of the U.S. Drought Monitor. In the past 30 days, precipitation in most of Arizona was less than 50 percent of average, which helped propagate expanding and intensifying drought conditions across the state. About 13 percent of the state is currently classified with extreme drought, while another 52 and 31 percent are labeled with severe and moderate drought, respectively (Figure 4). The hardest hit areas continue to be central and southern Arizona, where 90-day precipitation totals are only 25 percent of average for this time of the year.

Ongoing drought conditions have prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare a drought disaster for six Arizona counties: Coconino, Gila, Maricopa, Pima, Pinal, and Yavapai (Businessweek.com, April 9). In these regions, farmers and ranchers can apply for low interest emergency loans from the Farm Services Agency to help recover from losses under this declaration.