Precipitation

Precipitation since the water year began on October 1 has been patchy across most of Arizona and western and northern New Mexico (Figures 2a–b). The higher elevations of southeastern and northern Arizona and southwestern and the eastern half of New Mexico have been much wetter than average, with average precipitation ranging between 100 and 150 percent. A few isolated locations in New Mexico and the southwest corner of Arizona have received between 150 to 300 percent of average precipitation, including the lower Colorado River Valley on the western Arizona border. However, during the summer and particularly the past month, the lower Colorado River Valley has been quite dry.

During the last 30 days, the northeast corner of Arizona in the Virgin River watershed has been extremely wet, as has the Colorado Plateau and the eastern half of Arizona and northwestern New Mexico (Figures 2c–d). On the other hand, most of southern New Mexico has been very dry in the past month, receiving less than 70 percent of average precipitation. Summer precipitation is typically quite isolated and the recent wet conditions in southeastern Arizona are helping to make up the winter deficit of precipitation in this region. Unfortunately, the rainfall deficit in south-central New Mexico is continuing to grow as the monsoon activity remains to the west along the Arizona-New Mexico border.