Rachel Gibbons/Arizona Daily Sun
By Scott Buffon
Flagstaff, like much of the West, has seen drought conditions persist or worsen in August.
The U.S. Drought Monitor released a new report Thursday showing that more of Arizona was overtaken by severe and extreme drought, including Flagstaff and a large part of the state. Colorado is the only state in the West that has had a small portion of land in its borders reach exceptional drought — the monitor’s highest category of drought.
Despite Flagstaff’s scattered 1 1/2 inches of rain last week, it is likely it won’t be enough to make up for the larger region’s dearth of moisture, David Simeral, climatologist with the U.S. Drought Monitor, said.
“The rain did not have a lot of impact in terms of some of these isolated areas that received some rain,” Simeral said. “The deficits Flagstaff had going into the month of August — but also the extreme heat that we’ve had — is drying things out quickly.”
