Certainly, these recent storms have been very fruitful, but it’s not going to get us out of drought … particularly over the northern mountains.” The Drought Monitor Work Group, made up of members of the National Weather Service and state and federal agencies, determines the extent and severity of drought in the state.
Areas under exceptional drought include the northern part of the state and the Four Corners, where precipitation during the past six months was 50 to 75 percent of normal across much of the region.
Last year at this time, no part of the state was considered to be in severe, extreme or exceptional drought and only 5 percent was considered abnormally dry.
There are usually distinct periods of heavy rain during the monsoon and periods with little or no rain.
However, the city is still in a rainfall deficit for the year, at 4.45 inches.
The rain has helped place Bernalillo County and the middle Rio Grande Valley into the severe drought category, an improvement from the extreme drought category it was in last week.
Southern New Mexico had the greatest improvements, as drought was reduced by one category in many areas compared with last week.
Also during the Working Group conference, Raymond Abeyta of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages water resources in the western part of the country, said recent rains helped some with reservoir storage in the Rio Grande Valley.
We’ll have to see whether the rains really develop and really help us out.” El Vado contained about 9,682 acre-feet in July, according to Abeyta, who also said he believed that level was among the lowest he had seen since the early 2000s.
Last year at this time, the lake contained about 140,000 acre-feet of water.