Arizona Drought Status

Precipitation was hard to come by across southern Arizona over the past 30 days, causing short-term drought conditions to continue to worsen, according to the March 15 update of the U.S. Drought Monitor (Figures 4a–b). Moderate to severe drought conditions continue to cover much of southern and eastern Arizona, where less than 50 percent of average precipitation has fallen over the past three months. Extreme drought conditions have crept into far southeast Arizona, where observed winter season precipitation has been less than 25 percent of average. Drought impact reports submitted through AZ DroughtWatch (http://azdroughtwatch.org) describing poor range conditions, little or no water in seasonal streams, and poor condition or mortality in native plant species are consistent with the severe to extreme drought status across southern Arizona.

Northwestern Arizona, on the other hand, remains drought free due to above-average precipitation delivered to the region over the past several months. Reports of deep snowpacks, plentiful soil moisture, and the green-up of some low desert areas are all positive signs of a turn-around in short-term drought conditions that plagued this area just last summer.