Drought in Galiuro and Pinaleno Mountains, Arizona

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 areas only received between 0.1 and 0.5 inch, or 15 to 75 percent of normal. Soil moisture readings remained very low, below the 5th percentile ranking across Santa Cruz, eastern Pima and Pinal and western Graham counties and below the 10th percentile ranking elsewhere. Levels at San Carlos Reservoir fell to less than 1 percent of storage capacity. Around 20 small wild land fires occurred during the month, but all were quickly suppressed.