2022 monsoon was a wet one

Published: Tuesday, October 4, 2022 - 1:54pm

The 2022 monsoon season was a wet one.  Most of the state saw rainfall near or above average. 

National Weather Service Meteorologist Mark O’Malley says this is good news in the short term for Arizona. 

“Before the monsoon, almost 27% of the state was in extreme or exceptional drought, and almost 78% of the state was in severe drought. Well by the end of the monsoon nobody in the state was in extreme or exceptional drought anymore," O'Malley said. 

O’Malley says only 18% of the state now ranks as “severe” for drought.

Monsoon precipitation ranged from an inch-and-a-half in southwest Arizona to as much as 18 inches in the northern Arizona mountains.

Water