Drought — Baboquivari Mountains, Arizona

2020-10-06 to 2020-10-31 · Baboquivari Mountains, Arizona

Event narrative

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 southeast Arizona north and east of these locations and the exceptional drought (D4) category began in eastern portions of Pima and Pinal counties and western Graham County. Tucson recorded its fifth warmest October on record and while most of October was dry and warmer than normal, Tucson actually recorded its 4th earliest fall freeze on record, which was brought on by an early season winter storm that also produced low elevation snow during the last week of the month. Nevertheless, precipitation totals from this storm were generally less than a quarter inch in the valleys with around a half inch for the Mogollon Rim and some of the sky islands, and at less than 30 percent of normal precipitation for the month, were not enough to stop drought conditions from deteriorating further. The lightning-caused Cow Canyon Fire, that started in August, continued to spread in Greenlee County, consuming over 35,000 acres due to hot, dry and breezy conditions before being slowed by the early season snow. Meanwhile, several human caused wildfires took hold during October. The largest was the Encinos Fire which consumed nearly 15,000 acres along and east of the Baboquivari Mountains in Pima County. Soil moisture readings remained well below normal, falling to below the 5th percentile ranking in most areas, while remaining just below the 10th percentile ranking near the New Mexico state line. Levels at San Carlos Reservoir fell to less than 3 percent of storage capacity by the end of the month.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 925373. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.