Drought — Baboquivari Mountains, Arizona

2011-10-01 to 2011-10-31 · Baboquivari Mountains, Arizona

Event narrative

Following near normal Monsoon rainfall, dry and warm conditions returned to southern Arizona in October. Most areas received less than 50 percent of October's normal rainfall with a large swath receiving less than 10 percent of normal rainfall. Tucson International Airport received six hundredths of an inch for the month, while the worse drought areas of southeast Cochise County received up to fifteen hundredths of an inch. As a result, only enough precipitation fell to prevent conditions from getting much worse during the month. The lone positive was slight improvement in Greenlee County where D4 (exceptional) drought conditions dropped from 1.67 percent of the state in September to 1.24 percent in October. Local drought impacts were somewhat mitigated as the drought has persisted for several months. However, with the help of irrigation and normal Monsoon rainfall, the fall cotton crop has been reported to be fair to excellent.

Wider weather episode

Long term drought conditions continued during October with very little improvement during the month due to very little rainfall.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 352133. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.