Drought — Baboquivari Mountains, Arizona

2018-04-01 to 2018-04-30 · Baboquivari Mountains, Arizona

Event narrative

Extreme drought (D3 category), which began in January, continued throughout April in two areas of southeast Arizona. One area encompassed southeast Pima County, Santa Cruz County, and far southwest Cochise County including portions of the Tohono O'odham Nation and the Baboquivari, Santa Rita and Huachuca Mountains. The second area included the White Mountains in northern Graham and Greenlee Counties and the San Carlos Apache Tribe lands of northwestern Graham County. Little if any rain fell in the extreme drought area during April. Overall soil moisture readings generally remained ranked below the 20th percentile, with some areas below the 5th percentile. Wildfire activity picked up during April with at least five notable human caused wildfires occurring in or near the Extreme Drought area. Levels in the San Carlos Reservoir continued to fall during April, and dropped to less than 4 percent of capacity by the end of the month.

Wider weather episode

Extreme drought (D3 category), which began in January, continued across the same sections of southeast Arizona from late March throughout April as virtually no rain fell during the month.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 753387. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.