Monitoring Drought in Arizona

Abstract

Drought is a normal part of climate variability. It is a slow-moving phenomenon moving across space and time which is often difficult to define or identify. The definition of drought is often related to how drought affects someone or something. Climatologists or weather professionals may define drought by the amount of accumulated precipitation. Agriculturists may define it by how it affects their crops or pastures. Hydrologists may define drought by how much snowpack or reservoir levels. Fundamentally, drought can be summed up as when water availability does not meet water demand.