Chiricahua Mountains storm history

A migrant became lost while traversing the Chiricahua Mountains February 2. Several inches of snow fell late in the day and coincided with wind chills around 10 degrees. Wind chill temperatures dropped to as low as 5 below zero overnight. The Pima County Medical Examiner determin…

The Horseshoe 2 fire started on May 8 in Horseshoe Canyon in the Coronado National Forest. Gusty southwest winds caused the fire to grow over 9,000 acres on the first day. This extreme fire behavior was caused by extremely dry fuels caused by a long term drought and a killer wint…

For the month of November, Cochise county ranked the 17th driest for the period of record. Soil moisture readings increased to range between the 30th and 70th percentile for the month of November.

The Stanford Wildfire was discovered on October 24th and was caused naturally and continued to burn into the month of November. The wildfire expanded to 306 acres within the Chiricahua Mountains in the Coronado National Forest. There was one injury associated with the wildfire.

For the month of October, Cochise county ranked the 15th driest for the period of record. Soil moisture readings increased to range between the 20th and 30th percentile for the month of October.

For the month of September, Cochise county ranked the 14th wettest for the period of record. Soil moisture readings increased to range between the 10th and 20th percentile for the month of September.

For the month of August, Cochise county ranked the 8th driest for the period of record. Soil moisture readings decreased to range between the 1st and 5th percentile for the month of August.

Multiple trained spotters reported via social media a big dust storm tracking through all of Cochise county with visibilities dropping to below 0.25 miles at times.

The Exceptional Drought (D4) category continued during the month of July in the Chiricahua Mountains. For the month of July, Cochise county ranked the 39th driest for the period of record. Soil moisture readings increased to between the 20th and 30th percentile for the month of J…

The Exceptional Drought (D4) category continued during the month of June. For the month of June, Cochise county ranked the 30th wettest for the period of record. Soil moisture readings increased to between the 1st and 5th percentile for the month of June.

The exceptional (D4) drought category continued in Cochise county. For the month of May, Cochise county ranked the 20th driest for the period of record. Soil moisture readings continued below the 1st percentile for the month of April.

The exceptional (D4) drought category was introduced in the Chiricahua Mountains in April. The drought area remained the same. For the month of April, Cochise county ranked the 48th driest for the period of record. Soil moisture readings continued below the 1st percentile for the…

The extreme (D3) drought category was continued in the Chiricahua Mountains in April. The drought area remained the same. For the month of April, Cochise county ranked the 48th driest for the period of record. Soil moisture readings continued below the 1st percentile for the mont…

The extreme (D3) drought category continued in western sections of southeast Arizona during March. The drought area remained the same. For the month of March, Cochise county ranked the 56th driest for the period of record. Soil moisture readings fell below the 1st percentile for …

The extreme (D3) drought category was introduced to southeastern sections of southeast Arizona during the middle of February. The drought area expanded to include portions of Cochise County, including the Chiricahua Mountains. For the month of February, Cochise county ranked the …

The extreme (D3) drought category across far southern and eastern sections of southeast Arizona ended on April 22. This area near the New Mexico line encompassed southern Greenlee, southeast Graham and eastern Cochise counties, including the Chiricahua Mountains. A storm system r…

The extreme (D3) drought category continued across far southern and eastern sections of southeast Arizona during March. The area near the New Mexico line encompassed southern Greenlee, southeast Graham and eastern Cochise counties, including the Chiricahua Mountains. While rain o…

The extreme (D3) drought category continued across far southern and eastern sections of southeast Arizona during February. The area near the New Mexico line encompassed southern Greenlee, southeast Graham and eastern Cochise counties, including the Chiricahua Mountains. While rai…

The extreme (D3) drought category continued across far southern and eastern sections of southeast Arizona during much of January. The area near the New Mexico line encompassed southern Greenlee, southeast Graham and eastern Cochise counties, including the Chiricahua Mountains; wh…

The extreme (D3) drought category continued across far southern and eastern sections of southeast Arizona during December. The area near the New Mexico line encompassed southern Greenlee, southeast Graham and eastern Cochise counties, including the Chiricahua Mountains; while are…

The extreme (D3) drought category continued across far southern and eastern sections of southeast Arizona during November. The area near the New Mexico line encompassed southern Greenlee, southeast Graham and eastern Cochise counties, including the Chiricahua Mountains; while are…

The extreme (D3) drought category continued across far southern and eastern sections of southeast Arizona during October. The area near the New Mexico line encompassed southern Greenlee, southeast Graham and eastern Cochise counties, including the Chiricahua Mountains; while area…

The extreme (D3) drought category was introduced to far southern and eastern sections of southeast Arizona during the latter half of September. The area near the New Mexico line encompassed southern Greenlee, southeast Graham and eastern Cochise counties, including the Chiricahua…

About 4 inches of snow occurred in the Paradise area and Rucker had a wind gust to 55 mph.

A Desert Research Institute station at 6800 ft MSL in the Chiricahua Mountains measured a gust to 65 mph at 1020MST and 66 mph at 1410MST.

Satellite estimates (in line with other mountain ranges) indicated that greater than 12 of snow occurred at the higher peaks of the Chiricahua Mountains.

The lightning caused Raspberry Fire started on June 14 in the Chiricahua Mountains in Cochise County. Thunderstorm wind gusts of 30 mph helped the fire to quickly grow in mountainous terrain to more than 400 acres. The fire became fully contained on June 25, aided by several days…

Extreme drought (D3) category continued across eastern Santa Cruz and southern Cochise counties including the Huachuca and Mule Mountains through June. Two wildfires ignited in dry fuels in the middle of the month. The Raspberry fire in the Chiricahua Mountains and the Tonto Cany…

The extreme drought (D3) category was reached by mid May across Santa Cruz and southern Cochise Zones including the Huachuca, Mule, Dragoon and Chiricahua Mountains. Below normal precipitation occurred during the period of October 2021 through May 2022. Sierra Vista registered th…

A Desert Research Institute weather station, at 6850ft in the Chiricahua Mountains, measured a peak wind gust of 67 mph at 1450MST.

A wet August continued into early September and ended the extreme (D3) drought category designation in far southeast Cochise County early in the month. This marked the first time since August 2020 that the drought category was severe (D2) or lower across all of southeast Arizona.

A wet August caused the extreme (D3) drought category to cease in parts of the Tohono O'odham Nation and Graham, Greenlee, and much of Cochise counties--only remaining in far southeast Cochise County, where it eased from the exceptional (D4) drought category present in July. Augu…

A wet July caused the exceptional (D4) drought category and extreme (D3) drought category to cease across nearly all of southeast Arizona, with exceptional drought only remaining in far southeast Cochise County by the end of the month. The extreme (D3) drought category remained a…

The exceptional (D4) and extreme (D3) drought categories continued across a large part of southeast Arizona during June, with the exception of western Pima County. Most areas only tallied 0.5 or less for the month, which is close to normal. A few locations received 1-1.5 of rain,…

The human caused Warren Fire started May 25 in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeast Cochise County. The wildfire grew to 1400 acres by May 29 in hot and dry conditions. No fire growth was experienced after this date, but the fire was not officially contained until June 5. Fire s…

The exceptional (D4) and extreme (D3) drought categories continued across a large part of southeast Arizona during May, with the exception of western Pima County. Rain for the month totaled less than 0.10 inch in most areas with spotty amounts of 0.25 to 0.50 inch on May 20-21. S…

The human caused Jack Fire started on April 21st in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeast Cochise County. The wildfire was driven by wind gusts to 40 mph at times and over 1600 acres were burned in the first 24 hours. Forward progress was stopped on April 25th and the fire was co…

The exceptional (D4) and extreme (D3) drought categories continued across a large part of southeast Arizona during April, with the exception of western Pima County. Precipitation totals for the month totaled less than 0.25 inch, or less than 25 percent of normal, in most areas, b…

The exceptional (D4) and extreme (D3) drought categories continued across a large part of southeast Arizona during March, with the exception of western Pima County. Precipitation totals for the month totaled 0.5 to 1.5 inches in some areas or 75 to 125 percent of normal, but many…

The exceptional (D4) and extreme (D3) drought categories continued across a large part of southeast Arizona during February, with the exception of western Pima County. Precipitation totals for the month totaled 0.5 to 2.0 inches near the Mogollon Rim or 50 to 100 percent of norma…

Heavy snow accumulations of 10 to 14 inches combined with winds gusting to 40 mph occurred in the Chiricahua Mountains. Eleven inches of snow was observed at an elevation of 5500 feet at Paradise.

The exceptional (D4) and extreme (D3) drought categories continued across a large part of southeast Arizona during January, with the exception of western Pima County. Precipitation totals for the month totaled 0.5 to 1.5 inches, with higher amounts in the form of snow on the high…

The exceptional (D4) and extreme (D3) drought categories continued across a large part of southeast Arizona during December, with the exception of western Pima County. Precipitation totals for the month, which occurred primarily on December 9-10, totaled 0.10 to 1 inch or about 0…

The exceptional drought (D4) category, which began in eastern portions of Pima and Pinal counties and western Graham County in October, expanded across all of Graham and Greenlee counties, northern Cochise and Santa Cruz counties and central Pima County during November. The extre…

The extreme drought (D3) category, which began in late August and expanded in September, expanded further in October to include all of the Tohono O'odham Nation and all of Santa Cruz and Cochise counties, except for the Huachuca Mountains. Extreme drought continued across all of …

The extreme drought (D3) category, which began in late August, continued throughout September across the same sections of southeast Arizona from Tucson north and east, and expanded southward to encompass all of Graham and Greenlee counties along with all but the southwest quarter…

Lightning started the Klaus Fire in the Chiricahua Mountains in southeast Cochise County on August 10th. The fire was spread by strong winds and a lack of monsoon rainfall, and consumed 4864 acres before becoming contained August 18th. Fire suppression costs tallied $377,500.

Lightning started the Emigrant Fire north of the Chiricahua National Monument on June 5th. The fire was spread rapidly by strong winds and consumed 4756 acres before becoming fully contained June 14th.

Snowfall began in the early evening of February 21st and continued into the 22nd. By the afternoon of February 22 estimated snowfall totals in the Chiricahua Mountains above 5000 feet were one foot or greater.

Accumulating snow began early in the morning of January 1. By the morning of January 2 estimated snowfall totals in the Chiricahua Mountains above 7000 feet were one foot or greater.