PHOENIX — Our recent stretch of wet weather has brought even more drought improvement around the state, although there’s still a long way to go.
The U.S Drought Monitor released the latest drought update on Thursday and it shows that Arizona has seen further drought improvement thanks to last week’s monsoon storms.
While 99% of Arizona is still experiencing some level of drought, the area covered by an Exceptional Drought - the worst kind - has dropped to approximately just 9%.
That’s a drop from approximately 36% last week. Prior to that the areas experiencing an Exceptional Drought covered just over half of Arizona.
Phoenix Sky Harbor picked up 1.3 inches of rain over a 3-day stretch last week. Several other neighborhoods around the Valley picked up more than 2 inches of rain, with a few spots picking up more than 3 or 4 inches of rainfall.
So far this monsoon, Phoenix Sky Harbor has measured 1.84 inches of rain, with above average rainfall reported in June and July.
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On average, the monsoon season brings 2.43 inches of rain to Phoenix.
Other parts of Arizona have seen even higher rainfall amounts this season.
Flagstaff has picked up more than 6 inches of rain so far this season. The average rainfall for the entire monsoon season in Flagstaff is 7.68 inches.
Tucson just marked its wettest July on record, picking up 7.08 inches of rain so far this month.To date, Tucson is experiencing its wettest monsoon on record.
While all of this rain has certainly helped with our drought, we still have a long way to go.
86% of the state is still experiencing severe or extreme drought conditions.
