Arizona climate experts recommended Thursday that Governor Katie Hobbs renew a drought declaration in effect since 1999 as the state continues to reel from the hottest March on record. … In Northern Arizona, wildfires are already raging about a month ahead of schedule. Little to no snowpack, drought-stressed trees and a lot of dead pinyon and juniper means a higher risk this year for crown fires, in which fire climbs to the tops of trees and quickly spreads across the canopy. … Both the 1999 declaration and a later drought declaration enacted in 2007 by then-Governor Janet Napolitano will remain in effect for the foreseeable future. Hobbs last renewed the declarations in 2024.

Other snow and land drought news around the West:

• KTLA (Los Angeles): Half of California is ‘abnormally dry,’ NOAA data shows
• KRCR (Redding, Calif.): Shasta and Trinity counties reservoirs start summer nearly full as statewide snowpack lags
• Townlift (Park City, Utah): 100% of Utah now in drought as state braces for difficult summer
• Denver Gazette (Colo.): Denver Water to drain Antero Reservoir amid one of Colorado’s worst snowpack years
• ABC7 (Denver, Colo.): New map of drought in Colorado shows little improvement despite spring snowstorm