No dent in drought despite last week’s rain in metro Phoenix

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — It’s been a very dry year, so any rain helps. While the Valley picked up some rain last week, the drought status did not change much from last week.

The U.S. Drought Monitor releases its report every Thursday, although the data only runs through Tuesday morning. Therefore, this report does not include the rain and thunderstorms we had in the Valley on Tuesday evening.

While that is not a good report, we would be in even worse shape if it were not for March. Note that for Phoenix rainfall, the actual amount (green line) made up a up a little ground compared to normal (brown line) in the month of March.

Flagstaff snowfall shows the same trend. Snowfall was way below normal to start the year and is still below normal, but the deficit is not quite as bad since the start of March.

Flagstaff snowfall compared to normal(NOAA)

There are some signs of hope in the forecast. Metro Phoenix has rain and snow on the way Thursday and then a light round on Friday. While it won’t make a huge difference, but if the area gets enough of these systems, it can start to chip away at the drought.

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