Then boom!
“We got a fairly decent rain during the monsoon, and then October hit and really pushed us over the edge” O’Malley explained.
Before we were even halfway through the month, we hit our wettest October on record, according to the National Weather Service.
It was the Oct. 13 storm that put us over the top.
In June, most of the state was either in the exceptional or extreme drought category.
While that’s decidedly better, it’s still not great.
“We are seeing improvements in soil moisture and rangeland conditions but still we are lagging in the water-resource department,” said O’Malley.
+2 One super rainy month isn’t going to take Arizona out of its 15-year drought but we’re looking at a weak El Niño pattern for this winter.
That means the odds are tilted in Arizona’s favor of possibly seeing above-average rainfall numbers continue in the coming months.
The key to the forecast will be snow this winter — and lots of it.