Although the long-term drought outlook remains unchanged, Navajo County’s short-term drought status received an upgrade, thanks to rain and snowfall in late February.
According to a report issued by the Arizona Drought Preparedness Plan Monitoring Technical Committee last week, most of Navajo County is now experiencing moderate drought rather than the severe drought conditions which have existed over the last several months. A small swath across the north end of the county encompassing part of the Navajo Nation remains in severe drought status, while another small area west of Winslow has been downgraded out of drought status and into abnormally dry conditions.
Much of Northeastern Arizona, including Apache County, saw an improvement in moisture levels, but neighbors to the west saw a decline, including Coconino and Yavapai counties, which are now mostly experiencing severe drought conditions.
Most of southern Arizona is experiencing the same level of drought as Navajo County, with much of the state listed as moderate, though portions of Gila and Graham counties are experiencing the worst conditions in the state with extreme drought.
Compared to previous years, much of Navajo County is faring well. In March of 2012, 2013 and 2014, the majority of the county was listed as experiencing severe drought conditions. This is the first year since 2011 that most of the county has been downgraded to a moderate drought status in March. While the area also experienced moderate drought in March 2010, it was only listed as abnormally dry in March 2009. In 2008, Navajo County, along with most of northeastern Arizona, was identified as experiencing normal moisture conditions.
Just a few years before reaching normal status, however, Navajo County, along with nearly two-thirds of the state of Arizona, was listed as experiencing extreme drought conditions in March. At that time, the report noted that precipitation levels for most of the state had been at less than five percent of normal.
Although the precipitation levels for the current year are not included in the report, it does note that northeastern Arizona received “significant precipitation” in late February and early March.
The long-term outlook for Navajo County, which was announced in January, shows that the area is expected to continue to experience moderate drought conditions over the course of the year.
Neighboring areas such as Flagstaff are also expected to experience moderate conditions in the long-term outlook, with some areas of western Coconino and northern Mohave County expected to improve to “abnormally dry” conditions.
