Drought — Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona

2021-04-01 to 2021-04-30 · Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona

Event narrative

The exceptional (D4) and extreme (D3) drought categories continued across a large part of southeast Arizona during April, with the exception of western Pima County.

Precipitation totals for the month totaled less than 0.25 inch, or less than 25 percent of normal, in most areas, but a few locations from the Mogollon Rim across western Graham/eastern Pinal counties into east central Pima County received between 0.25 and 0.75 inch of rain. 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 close to zero percent of capacity with only 50 acre-feet--the lowest level in more than a decade. At least a dozen small wild land fires occurred during the month, three of which grew to over 1000 acres due to dry conditions and gusty winds.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 955625. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.