A number of storm systems have impacted Arizona this fall and winter, especially across northern Arizona, and drought conditions are slowly responding to the the additional rain and snowfall.
The latest drought conditions for Arizona, released by the National Drought Mitigation Center, show drought is slowly improving. Currently no portion of the state is in the two highest classes of drought, which are classified as exceptional and extreme. At the start of the year nearly 4 percent of the state was in extreme drought.
As of December 22, more than 14 percent of the state was considered drought free, up from zero percent at the start of the year. The majority of the state (55.9 percent) is in a state of drought classified as abnormally dry. These areas, which include much of northern Arizona, are areas that have been dry but are not in an actual drought.
Just over 28 percent of the state is in moderate drought and just 1.27 percent of the state is still in severe drought. This may sound bad but it is a huge improvement from the start of the year when more than 47 percent of the state was in moderate drought and nearly 32 percent in severe drought.
So what about this record setting El Niño we have been talking about for the past few months? There is good news, it looks like Arizona will see the impacts of it starting in the early to middle part of January.
Long term models are indicating the jet stream will drop southward across the Pacific Ocean, which will funnel storms into southern California and Arizona bringing with them much needed rainfall. The Climate Prediction Center is also indicating a 60 percent chance of above-average rainfall across Arizona from Jan. 5 through Jan. 11.
Even longer term outlooks are still calling for a 50-percent chance of above-average rainfall across all of Arizona this winter and the upcoming spring. As a result, the outlook is calling for drought removal being likely for the central and eastern portion of the state (including the Phoenix valley) by the end of March.
For the latest weather forecast head over to weather.12news.com and download the 12 News App.
