The committee released a report last week showing statewide drought conditions worsened during March.
The continued dryness led to drought declarations on the Navajo Nation and in Yuma County.
Though a series of weak storms passed through Arizona, they left only insignificant snow, according to the report.
The southern half of the state remained dry and northern Arizona received only scattered light precipitation.
Water in the Colorado River is generated by snowmelt runoff from mountain ranges as far away as Wyoming and Colorado.
The Colorado River system, which provides Arizona with about 40 percent of its water supply, has experienced severe drought conditions since 2000.
Forecasters also predict runoff into Lake Powell, which supports the Upper Basin states north of Arizona’s Lee’s Ferry — Colorado New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — will be only 43 percent of normal this year.
ADWR reported this year’s projection for in-flow into Lake Powell is 3.1 million acre-feet, less than half its average 7.1 million acre-feet.
An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons, enough to cover an acre of land with a foot of water.
BuRec’s Colorado River Simulation System model also increased the probability of shortage in 2020 by 7 percent, in 2021 by 13 percent and in 2022 by 11 percent.

Farmers in Isfahan, Iran, are continuing to protest the lack of water available to irrigate their fields.
Recent amateur video on social media showed protesters chanting slogans while security forces tried to disperse them.
Much of Iran is suffering through a drought that has sparked several protests across the country in the past month, including in towns near Isfahan and around the western province of Khuzestan.
Isfahan has been at the epicenter of the protests.
Farmers say that over the years, the government has deprived them of their right to the water sources of the region.
Iran’s farmers have struggled with several successive years of drought.
Farming has never been easy in Iran, where three-quarters of the country gets less than 8 inches of rain a year, most of which evaporates before seeping into the soil.
The government has promised to pay compensation to help the struggling farmers.
Approximately 97 percent of the country is experiencing drought to some degree, according to the Iran Meteorological Organization.
"Towns and villages around Isfahan have been hit so hard by drought and water diversion that they have emptied out, and people who lived there have moved," Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, told Reuters.

Members of the Overberg branch of the South African Hunters and Game Conservation Association (SA Hunters) have donated 480t of feed to farmers in drought-stricken Sutherland in the Northern Cape, said a SA Hunters spokesperson.
Speaking to Farmer’s Weekly, Justus Harms, chairman of the SA Hunters Overberg branch, said the donations began with only a few bakkie loads of hay bales, but thanks to donations from various sources they were now delivering seven truckloads of bales every month.
The initiative began when Overberg hunters Frank Esterhuizen en Essie Esterhuyze challenged fellow hunters to donate feed to the area that is far away from main routes and therefore was often overlooked for aid.
The donated feed to date was valued at about R1 million, with the next delivery scheduled for 13 April.
Harms said there was a shortage of roughage in the Sutherland area, therefore the Overberg hunters were now making barley pills for livestock.
“There has been some rain since the beginning of the year but new grass growth is immediately eaten by livestock.
Rain also led to flash floods, with livestock being washed away.
It’s a disaster.
But Overberg farmers donate livestock to those in Sutherland who lost animals so they can build up their herds again,” Harms said.
To donate, call Justus Harms on 082 497 4230 or email justus@supremespares.co.za.

New Delhi: Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan shared a heart-warming message on behalf of Paani Foundation on Monday urging people to participate in a movement that helps drought-hit Maharashtra become water abundant.
In his message posted on micro-blogging site Twitter, Mr Khan is seen sitting in a vast field under the shade of a tree asking the viewers, "When was the last time you experienced the joy of smelling the soil’s fragrance?
When was the last time you roamed around and enjoyed the breeze?
When was the last time you extended friendship to someone staying far away from your city and in a village?"
Help a village," the actor urged in his video message, adding, "I assure you that when you return home at the end of the day, you will realise that in actuality, it’s the village that has helped you."
Apart from being a superlative actor, Mr Khan is a known to be a philanthropist.
His television show Satyamev Jayate touched upon sensitive social issues prevalent in India.
The Foundation aims to harness the power of communication to mobilise, motivate and train people to reach the goal of making the state drought-free.
love.
a https://t.co/n21Rd9g4J5#Jalmitra#shramadaanpic.twitter.com/YJ77Dw1OgI – Aamir Khan (@aamir_khan) April 9, 2018 (With Inputs From IANS)

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Five years into a drought that has left its natural water sources at their lowest in a century, Israel plans to build two new desalination plants and expand its pipelines to ease stress on farmers and the environment.
The lack of rainfall has overtaxed Israel’s desalination and waste-water treatment plants, choking its most fertile regions in the north of the country and bringing calls for government action.
“The shortage of natural water is the worst that has been measured in about 100 years and is bringing water sources in the north to an unprecedented low point,” Energy and Water Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Monday.
The water ministry announced a plan to build two more desalination plants to reinforce the five built along the Mediterranean coast over the past 13 years.
It did not include their price, but similar facilities in Israel have cost about $400 million.
It will also expand the country’s water grid, cut back on pumping from natural springs to rehabilitate rivers that have dried up, and possibly even pump large amounts of water into the ailing Sea of Galilee, technically a lake near the border with Syria that is Israel’s main freshwater source.
In the Middle East, one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, water is also the subject of wider tensions.
Intense pressure on already scarce water resources could lead to an increase in migration and the risk of conflict, the World Bank has warned.
Steinitz said he will bring the plan to the government for approval in the coming weeks.

(NORTH CAROLINA NEWS NETWORK) — Recent rainfall has helped to rid North Carolina of moderate drought conditions for the first time since last October, wiping out the lingering drought conditions in the western Piedmont.
“Recent rainfall has brought relief to the remaining drought conditions in eastern North Carolina,” said Klaus Albertin, chairman of the N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council.
“Streamflow, groundwater and soil moisture levels have greatly improved and are near normal averages.
We remain vigilant as conditions may deteriorate depending on the rainfall we receive moving into the spring months, coupled with the very dry fall and winter we experienced.” 28 counties are still listed as abnormally dry due to long-term rainfall deficit.
The very southwest corner of Wayne County is still listed as abnormally dry.
Abnormally dry is not a drought category.
Rather, it describes less severe dry conditions, which still require heightened awareness by water users in the affected counties.
The conditions are reflected on the federal drought map for North Carolina, which is released every Thursday.
To see the most recent drought map, go to ncdrought.org.
Conditions can worsen quickly due to the longer-term deficits and because North Carolina’s hot summer months can bring about higher rates of evaporation.

People living with HIV in Mudzi, Mashonaland East provice, say they are struggling with serious food shortages that have made it difficult to take their daily anti-retroviral (ARVs) drugs, leaving many at risk of defaulting.
The province experienced a severe drought this season, resulting in crops wilting and villagers’ livestock succumbing to the inclement weather conditions.
People living with HIV need at least three meals a day, but the crop failure has left locals without much-needed nutritious foods, posing an additional challenge to their already fragile health.
Mazviita Moyo, a member of the Community ART Refill Group (CARG), said the situation was dire and appealed for urgent assistance.
CARG brings together people willing to disclose their HIV status to each other in groups of 4-10 people with support services provided by nurses and counsellors.
It’s even worse when you are known to be living with HIV as some neighbours shut their doors on you," said Moyo.
Those that have tried collapsed because of hunger."
Another villager, Marvis Katsande, said gone are the days when local churches used to give them food hand-outs.
"They just stopped, and we don’t even know why; and as far as adherence to the ARV therapy is concerned, we can’t as we spend most of our time begging for food," said Katsande.
"Without nutritious food to boost our blood cells we no longer safe from other diseases and opportunistic infections that take advantage of our condition."

BAMYAN CITY (Pajhwok): Hundreds of families have probably fled homes in Saighan district of central Bamyan province after water scarcity decimated their livelihoods, an official said Sunday, seeking the United Nations’ intervention.
Abdul Jalil Saighani, district villages’ affairs director, told Pajhwok Afghan News that some 6,000 families lived in the district and 3,830 of them were in difficulty facing an acute shortage of water.
Saighani cited a National Disaster Management committee report that said the shortage of water in the district might force hundreds of families to leave their homes.
He said the water crisis caused by a dry spell had increased and farmers were no longer interested in cultivation.
Mohammad Mubin, a farmer in the district, said: “This year, we did not cultivate our land because the drought and the resulting lack of water persist.” He said farmers feared their wheat and potato harvests would not the amount of seeds.
“Not much rain and snowfall happened this season in the district and we hardly find water for drinking”, he added.
Imran Khan Bayani, the district administrative chief, was also concerned about the water issue and said he had shared the issue with provincial officials.
Calling the water shortage a huge problem, Bayani said said 90 per cent of the Saigah district’s residents were associated with farming.
He said the water scarcity issue might affect crops in other nearby districts as well.
However, Abdul Rahman Ahmadi, the governor’s spokesman, said the drought issue was province-wide and that the provincial government alone could not address the matter, which he said needed broad plans pk/ma Related Article

In mid-February, extreme drought conditions were declared by the NWS in southern third of Apache County and a slice of south-central Navajo County, but no further.
During March most of northern Arizona had 50 percent or less of normal rainfall or snowfall; with Show Low receiving just one-third of the normal amount or precipitation for the month.
Although the La Nina is expected to weaken as spring progresses, “odds are still tilted in favor of above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation through June,” the outlook states.
The Wildland Fire Potential Outlook from the National Interagency Fire Center shows near normal fire risks for Arizona through the months of April and May, but above normal fire dangers for the month of June, as fuel moisture levels in the forests are predicted to decline as spring progresses.
John Whatley, Assistant Fire Manager for the U.S. Forest Service at Apache Sitgreaves National Forest, says that the reason the fire danger remains at normal levels currently, is because the precipitation we have received occurred at pretty regular intervals, which has helped to moderate the fire danger, despite the drought.
April is expected to be at a normal fire danger trending to above normal.
According to Catrina Jenkins, emergency management deputy director for Navajo County, the White Mountain Fire Restrictions Coordinating Group meets weekly by phone or in-person to discuss fire danger conditions and to make decisions about when restrictions will be enacted.
The group is made up of officials from several levels of government, including the Forest Service, The state Department of Forestry and Fire Management, area tribal officials, county emergency management, local fire departments and law enforcement.
Last year, Stage 1 restrictions began on June 16.
Whatley said he expects that we may enter Stage 1 restrictions in mid-May, but that depends upon what happens this month.

“This would’ve been pretty deep shade in the past,” said Witter, a fire ecologist with the National Park Service.
Jerry Brown may have lifted the drought emergency last year, but thousands of trees across the Santa Monica Mountains, which stretch from Hollywood to Point Mugu, have been unable to recover from years spent with little or no rain.
Rosi Dagit, a senior conservation biologist with the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, said about 9,000 oaks in the range have died because of the drought.
“When you put it all together, it looks pretty bad in the Santa Monica Mountains, and the rain last year really did not make much of a difference,” Dagit said.
And while oak trees are dying, other plants and animals are affected.
Oaks are what Dagit calls a keystone species because wildlife in the Santa Monica Mountains is dependent on the trees.
The remains of oaks, which Witter said can be some of the more resilient species of tree, are evidence that the drought may have done lasting damage.
Several insects attack trees when they’re weak, he said, but one insect in particular, the western oak bark beetle, is dangerous because it carries a fungus that attacks the plants’ circulatory system.
“It’s often not the insect that kills the tree but the fungus they carry with them.” The damage isn’t limited to oak trees.
Instead of covering the Santa Monicas, trees may end up growing only in the most temperate and wettest parts of the mountains, he said.