It's More

[Aslkahuna]

of an early Spring pattern than a Winter one down here, but our secondary rainy season is going out with a bang-or should I say boom as in thunder with heavy rainshowers and hail. So far today we've had 0.32in of rain which is excellent for this time of year down here putting us at 1.06in for March which is well above the normal for the month. Our YTD is also above normal though the December-March rainfall is a bit below still. Nevertheless, the rain is needed and welcome and although it won't help us much with the drought situation it won't hurt us either. The wildlife will be happy with water and forage available down here this Srping though the Spring grasses will later pose a fire risk. Should be noted, however, that other parts of AZ are NOT sharing in this as today's rain is strictly a SE AZ affair.

Steve

[WXBUFFJIM]

Definitely well worth it in the long run. Much needed combined with snow pack in the western and southwestern states will definitely go a long way in resolving this drought problem. The key is how much snow fell during the winter. But rain on top of that is not a bad thing to have either.

Hopefully that rain/snowmelt combo continues through thr spring and summer of '04.

Jim

[azsnowman]

Definitely well worth it in the long run. Much needed combined with snow pack in the western and southwestern states will definitely go a long way in resolving this drought problem. The key is how much snow fell during the winter. But rain on top of that is not a bad thing to have either.

Hopefully that rain/snowmelt combo continues through thr spring and summer of '04.

Jim

We had just a hair under 3.23" of rain night before, the snow level was very high, 9500-10,000'....there *was* a pretty decent snowpack from 8500-9000' day before, needless to say, with the warm rains at that elevation, every creek, stream that have been dry for over 3 years are now running bank to bank, THAT'S not good, all it's doing is running off, not soaking in like we all had hoped for.

I can only IMAGINE what the wildflower situation is going to be like here in a few weeks down lower AND what it will do for the quail and dove population! Hate to say this BUT...it should make for a bumper crop of quail and huntin' season this fall SHOULD be the best in years!

Dennis

[Aslkahuna]

requires fair to good rain in the Fall followed by a wet late Winter/early Spring. While we had that here such is not the case for all of Arizona. For example, Tucson is at 1.96in for the YTD which is about 0.3in below normal while I'm at 3.09in which is 0.96 above normal. While we have seen some drought relief here in western Cochise County, the northern part of the State remains in serious drought conditions as does the area adjacent to NM so the recent good rains have been spotty.

Steve