Arizona Is Free of Short-term Drought Impacts After Almost 10 Years
As of June 11, 2019, Arizona is finally free of short-term drought impacts.*
Arizona was previously in the midst of their longest duration of drought since the start of the United States Drought Monitor (USDM) in 2000. Beginning on August 18, 2009, some part of Arizona was in drought, as classified by the USDM (D1-D4), for 512 consecutive weeks. This state record for short-term drought, which lasted nearly 10 years (approximately 9 years and 10 months), finally came to an end with the release of the USDM map on June 11, 2019.
The video above provides a quick recap of the weekly drought monitor maps in Arizona beginning on August 11, 2009, the week before drought was designated in the state, to the removal of drought on June 11, 2019. U.S. Drought Monitor data are available at: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Data.aspx
*Note: Despite the removal of short-term drought, Arizona continues to experience significant long-term drought conditions as seen on the Arizona Department of Water Resources’ Long-term Drought Map.
