PHOENIX (AP) — While rain and snow have ended droughts across much of the U.S. this year, conditions have gotten worse in Arizona, further extending a dry streak that began in 1996.
A weak monsoon and meager rain in the months before and after turned rangelands brittle and allowed the summer wildfire season to linger through autumn.
And in the high country, the soil is so parched that it likely will soak up some of the spring snowmelt before the water can flow into rivers and reservoirs. That will in part blunt the effects of El Nino, a shift in ocean temperatures that can produce wetter winters in Arizona.
Enough water is stored from past years to protect Phoenix from shortages no matter what happens this winter, but the rest of the state faces a bleaker outlook that could include conservation measures or even water hauling in some places if weather patterns don’t change.
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Information from: The Arizona Republic
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
