Parts of southern Arizona completely out of drought status
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — For parts of southern Arizona, rain and thunderstorms have put enough of a dent in the drought that it’s actually completely gone.
In the U.S. Drought Monitor map below, notice that all of Pima County and Santa Cruz County are not covered by any type of shading. This means that there are no signs of drought in these two counties.
This is due to consistent rounds of showers and thunderstorms that this part of the state has received over the past several weeks and months.
Tucson, of course, sits in Pima County, and the city’s rainfall numbers have been quite healthy since the start of the monsoon. Since June 15, the official start of the monsoon, Tucson has picked up 5.51″ of rainfall. The normal monsoon rainfall up to this point in the season is 3.84″.
It’s a different story in the Phoenix area, which is in “moderate drought,” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Phoenix’s official rainfall has only reached a modest 0.50″ since the start of the monsoon. The normal rainfall for this period is 1.59″.
There is a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the Phoenix area from Thursday afternoon into Friday morning. If this rain does materialize, it’s unlikely to put much of a dent in the drought, but every little drop helps.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Copyright 2024 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.
