NWS: Drought drags on in Yuma County

But storms ease severity of situation locally

Yuma County is still considered to be in drought status, according to the National Weather Service, but this fall’s storms have noticeably reduced its severity over the last six months.

Bianca Hernandez, meteorologist for the NWS out of the Phoenix office, said last week the southern part of the county is currently considered to be in “moderate” drought on the national drought monitor map versus “extreme” drought six months ago.

“The city of Yuma is under moderate drought, but there’s a little bit of severe drought conditions, pretty much closer to the Colorado River,” she said.

The United States Drought Monitor, a website produced by four federal agencies and centers, has five categories: abnormally dry, moderate, severe, exceptional and extreme.

There are several different scales with definitions for each category of drought severity. Drought is defined as “a moisture deficit bad enough to have social, environmental or economic effects.”

Hernandez said the rainfall from the Rosa and Sergio storm systems coming through the Gulf of California clearly had an impact on the drought level of the county, and the whole state.

“Even looking at the average amount of rainfall you guys see between Jan. 1 and now, we’re almost an inch-and-a-half below average in Yuma. But the drought conditions have still improved.

“Regardless of that,

even here in Phoenix and through most of the state, I would say what really improved our drought was all of that rainfall that we got from Sergio,” she said.

As of early September, most of Yuma County was in extreme drought, Hernandez said.

The “abnormally dry” category is considered to not actually be in drought, but heading into or going out of that status. Under the current drought map, the extreme southeastern corner of Yuma County, over the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, is just “abnormally dry.”

Another NWS website, the U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook, has a map with even better news, if it turns out to be accurate — most of the county is included in a green patch which indicates “drought removal likely.”

The U.S. Drought Monitor map is available at droughtmonitor.unl.edu.