Drought — Baboquivari Mountains, Arizona

2018-06-01 to 2018-06-30 · Baboquivari Mountains, Arizona

Event narrative

Extreme drought (D3 category) continued across Santa Cruz, far southwest Cochise, much of Pima, all but far southeast Pinal Counties and the northern halves of Graham and Greenlee Counties including the Tohono O'odham Nation, the San Carlos Apache Tribal lands and the Baboquivari, Santa Rita, Huachuca and White Mountains. The remnants of Hurricane Bud resulted in a significant rainfall event during the middle of the month. Rainfall amounts from a tenth of an inch to just over 2 inches yielded departures of just an inch or less above normal. This was just enough rain to keep soil moisture readings similar to May levels, with all of the D3 area below the 15th percentile and western areas below the 5th percentile.

Wildfire activity was limited for much of June, but began to increase toward the end of the month as lightning activity increased. Levels in the San Carlos Reservoir continued to fall during June, and dropped to less than 1 percent of capacity by the end of the month.

Wider weather episode

Extreme drought (D3 category), which began in January, changed little in areal extent during June across sections of southeast Arizona. Expansion of extreme drought farther southeast was inhibited by a significant precipitation event resulting from the remnants of Hurricane Bud.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 765615. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.