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.

Climatologists said Wednesday that conditions are right for an El Nino weather pattern to develop that could bring wetter-than-normal conditions this winter in drought-stricken areas of the southwestern U.S.
"I would say, flip a coin."
Parts of the Southwest, particularly the Four Corners region of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, are experiencing extreme to exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
There is a 70-75 percent chance for development this winter of El Nino, the natural warming of parts of the central Pacific Ocean that influences weather worldwide, said Gerry Bell, research meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.
El Nino-produced rainfall could relieve parched conditions in many parts of the drought-stricken Southwest but how much relief the region experiences depends upon the strength of the tropical ocean phenomenon, he said.
"El Nino is not a guarantee," he said.
Simeral said the Four Corners region is in the midst of the driest September-October period on record.
The region has experienced the warmest 12-month period on record in 123 years of record-keeping.
Snowpacks in parts of Arizona and Colorado that could provide much-needed moisture during warm, dry periods are unusually low.
Copyright 2018 Associated Press.

Outdoor water use has been prohibited, officials said, and violators may be reported to the city’s 311 hotline.
"Our initial estimates is that this situation could go on for 10 to 14 days as the water system tries to settle," Eric Carter, the Travis County chief emergency management coordinator, told county commissioners on Tuesday.
Businesses, especially restaurants, coffee shops and bars, have been hit hard by the boil-water advisory.
Preparing food and keeping facilities — and employees’ hands — clean is tedious work, said Corona Coffee Company owner Naiman Rigby, who plans to close early to help save water.
Rigby also has been giving bottled water to postal workers and teachers who come in, he said.
University of Texas-Austin student Benjamin Cohen said campus water fountains have been covered with trash bags.
He and his roommates are using bottled water, as well as boiling and refrigerating tap water.
They’ve also turned off their ice maker and aren’t doing laundry or running the dishwasher.
"We don’t want to use excess water," he said, "and also want to make sure the water we use is safe."
Nearby San Antonio also is stepping in to help, sending a 5,000-gallon tanker full of clean water to help Austin residents, officials there said.

DICKINSON, N.D. — Large swaths of southwest North Dakota are facing moderate fire danger, which may signal a returning drought.
Dunn, Billings, Slope, Hettinger and Stark Counties have already been designated as natural disaster counties by the United States Department of Agriculture after meeting requirements under earlier in the year, as each county suffered from drought conditions during the growing season lasting for eight or more consecutive weeks.
The National Weather Service in Bismarck said fire weather watches and red flag warnings are issued when there is an “enhanced risk” for fires to get out of control — something that may be a future possibility if the trend continues.
Representatives of the weather service said that a watch is typically issued a day or two ahead of time when they believe the conditions might be possible for a fire spreading.
The wildland fire assessment system, in collaboration with the federal land management agencies in North Dakota, identified most of western North Dakota as a moderate fire danger area.
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Copyright © 2018 Albuquerque Journal The Rio Grande is again looking puny where it crosses through Albuquerque as persistent drought continues to afflict the Southwest.
But water groups around the state have pulled together to keep it flowing, at least until the end of the water year.
“They have enough, I believe, to get through the end of October, if need be.” John Fleck, director of the University of New Mexico’s Water Resources Program, said natural flows of the Rio Grande dried up in July, and it’s still flowing only because of water from the San Juan-Chama Project, which allows for the transport of Colorado River Basin water to supplement the Rio Grande.
The Rio Grande is in dire straits throughout its run from Colorado through New Mexico, Fleck said.
Frey said this year’s die-offs due to low water levels have occurred in the Chama, Brazos, Mora and Pecos rivers, as well as various lakes and ponds around the state.
But just 0.22 percent of the state is drought-free.
The exceptional drought area in the northwestern corner of the state showed a little growth, with more than 15 percent of the state now in the worst class of drought.
Fontenot said there’s a 65 to 70 percent chance of an El Niño weather pattern moving in during the coming months, which typically brings more precipitation.
But even if El Niño does arrive, it isn’t certain which areas it will affect and how much precipitation it’ll bring.
“We had an El Niño forecast here two years ago, and it was great for about two months until the jet stream moved farther north and winter kind of turned off.”

From July 1 to the end of summer, Bend received less than a fifth of an inch of rain, which made that period the fifth-driest on record, according to John Peck, meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Pendleton.
Summer is often a dry time across much of Central Oregon, with an average of about an inch and a half of rain falling in Bend between July and September.
Still, the abnormally dry weather this year plunged the region further into drought, forcing irrigation districts to draw down local reservoirs and raising big questions about Central Oregon’s next irrigation season.
Gorman said that water levels in the reservoir are just 12 feet from what the Oregon Water Resources Department considers empty.
The low levels make it nearly impossible for the reservoir to fill this year.
A dry winter has a more dramatic effect on water levels for irrigation than a dry summer does, but Central Oregon had both this year, Gorman said.
Low snow totals, especially in the high country, left the Deschutes River Basin with less water than expected, and kept the underground flows in the area from being replenished, he said.
“I can recall maybe three or four days where we saw thunderstorms,” Peck said.
Because those thunderstorms never came this summer, the demand for water from reservoirs was higher than it would be in an average year, Gorman said.
Unlike last year, when the Milli Fire burning outside of Sisters made air throughout Central Oregon unhealthy for weeks, much of the smoke came from fires nowhere near Central Oregon, Svelund said.

A wave of record-breaking heat across Colorado has increased fire danger and worsened drought conditions, meteorologists say.
"It’s kind of like summer came back here in the middle of September," said state Climatologist Russ Schumacher.
Colorado Springs’ heat has soared in September, breaking four daily records over the past week, say data from the National Weather Service in Pueblo.
In Grand Junction, 89 days have brought temperatures of at least 90 degrees, said Dennis Phillips, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service there.
"So yeah, it’s been hot," Phillips said.
"I think a lot of that can be attributed to the drought that we’re in and the fact that the monsoon was basically missing this year."
"Even above-average precipitation in the summer isn’t that much.
The only way they’re going to make that up is with a big snow season," he said.
It was sparked by lightning July 22 and had remained at less than 5,000 acres for weeks.
But the statewide forecast shows a better chance for above-normal winter precipitation, "which would at least keep things from getting worse, and hopefully start things on the path to getting better," he said.

The hurricane is now blamed for at least 19 deaths throughout the Carolinas, according to reports.
Roy Cooper on Sunday.
While the remnants of the Florence storm mass have moved on to the north, North Carolina is still facing the effects.
Larger rivers eventually will rise to flood stage as well."
In Union County, N.C., one-year-old Kaiden Lee-Welch was swept away from his mother’s grip after their car was pushed off the road and into trees by flood waters.
A search for him resumed Monday morning and his body was found in flood waters.
Other victims are: Rhonda R. Hartley, 30, who died early Sunday after driving a pickup truck into standing water near Gilbert, South Carolina.
A husband and wife died in a Fayetteville, North Carolina, house fire Friday A mother and her 8-month-old child were killed when a massive tree crushed their brick house Friday in Wilmington, North Carolina An 81-year-old man died while trying to evacuate Wayne County, North Carolina, on Friday A 78-year-old man was electrocuted in the rain while trying to connect extension cords for a generator in Lenoir County, North Carolina A 77-year old man died after he went outside to check on his hunting dogs and was blown down by strong winds Three people died in Duplin County, North Carolina, because of flash flooding and swift water on roadways Amber Dawn Lee, 61, died late Friday when the vehicle she was driving struck a tree near the town of Union, South Carolina ‘Cut Off From The Rest Of The State’ Flood waters left Wilmington virtually cut off Sunday as homes and businesses in the city and other parts of New Hanover County faced the threat of losing access to drinking water because a major utility is critically low on fuel.
They could lose drinking water if the agency doesn’t get needed fuel within 48 hours, and was considering options such as trying to get fuel by ship or aircraft.
Related coverage: Photo: Old vehicles are surrounded by flood water from the Neuse River September 16, 2018 in Kinston, North Carolina.

CCS’ staff will continue to work closely with Cumberland County Emergency Management to monitor weather forecasts and road conditions.
It is not a pet-friendly shelter.
Waters of the Cape Fear are expected to rise to 62-feet by Tuesday morning.
Call the Hurricane Florence Information Line at 910-678-7657 if you need help with shelter assistance.
11:35 a.m. Harnett County officials are considering asking residents who live near the Cape Fear River to evacuate.
Officials are expecting the river to rise about 14 more feet in Harnett County, according to Zach Shean, the county’s assistant emergency management coordinator.
As of Saturday morning, 132 people were in Harnett County shelters.
Shean said 32 people were in a shelter at Western Harnett High School that was opened for residents evacuating from near the Little River.
10:28 a.m. Two Fayetteville fire stations evacuated Two Fayetteville fire stations were being evacuated Sunday morning because they are within a mile of the Cape Fear River.
“Rain and wind overnight has caused new outages and some customers who had power restored yesterday, may have lost service,” the release states.

ISLE LA MOTTE, Vt. (WCAX) Cathy Tudhope’s summer has been a challenge.
"This is my eleventh week without water," Tudhope said.
Her well, which sits in a field next to her Isle La Motte house, is 15-feet deep and at least 90 years old.
It’s so shallow, the state doesn’t even recognize it as a well.
And Tudhope is not alone.
"People have always relied on them, but in a given dry year, which we have every five to seven years, sometimes they just stop producing," said Claude Chevalier of Chevalier Drilling.
Chevalier says his business has seen a 50 percent increase in customers hoping to have their shallow wells drilled deeper.
"When somebody is out of water, they need help immediately."
"You do what you have to do to get along," Tudhope said.
"I can’t wait to take a shower in my house," Tudhope said.