Southwest suffers historic drought
In Phoenix, 4 months without a drop of rain; regional outlook bleak
By Patrick O'Driscoll
USA TODAY
DENVER ? One of the driest winters ever in the Southwest is killing trees and plants, stressing wildlife, choking the air in Phoenix and leaving much of the region prone to severe wildfire.
The spring outlook is no better. The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center forecasts below-normal precipitation through May across the South and Southwest, from Alabama to California. The worst is expected in Arizona and New Mexico.
Today marks a record 139th straight day without a drop of rain in Phoenix. The National Drought Monitor, which tracks national conditions weekly, says Tucson is so dry that some homeowners are watering cactus and other desert plants ?to keep them alive.?
The dryness is moving north. The Drought Monitor lists abnormal dryness or moderate to severe drought for all of Kansas; most of Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois; and much of South Dakota and eastern Colorado. The monitor also reports soil moisture in Nebraska is so low that farmers have begun irrigating months ahead of normal. Most of the Texas Panhandle winter wheat crop is in peril.
Phoenix had no rain from November through February for the first time in history. Santa Fe had its driest winter since 1890, with only 0.27 inches of rain since November.
?What can you say? It's been a historical winter that wasn't,? says Joe Garcia of the 1.1-million-acre Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico, where one ski area never opened and the other operates on man-made snow.
The climate center expects higher spring temperatures from Texas to Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California.
Texas and Oklahoma suffered fierce winter grassfires that scorched thousands of acres, destroyed about 500 homes and killed at least five people. More fires broke out last week.
The dryness and warmth have been heightened by La Nia, a weather pattern that sends more storms to the Northwest but fewer across the southern USA.
Winter fires have hit Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, which had a 26,500-acre blaze last week. It is so dry that a small fire Saturday outside Boulder, Colo., may have been sparked by gunfire.
Drought has plagued parts of the West for a decade. Arizona got a reprieve last winter as heavy snow and rain refilled reservoirs on the Salt River that supply Phoenix. But the forest watershed upstream is tinder-dry. Five of 11 national forests in Arizona and New Mexico have posted summer-style bans on open fires and camp stoves.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department has begun hauling water to wildlife herds as winter has failed to replenish remote watering holes. With no moisture to keep the dust down, air quality in Phoenix has worsened to unprecedented winter levels: 24 pollution alerts since Nov. 1. One or two is normal.
?It's off the charts, more advisories than we've issued in the past five years combined,? says Steven Owens, head of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
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