• By the first week of June, conditions for at least 80 percent of the range and pastures in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado were rated poor to very poor according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
• According to media reports (NBC News):
  • In Utah, reservoirs were about half full and streams were running below 50 percent of normal. Officials warned of irrigation cutbacks from 20 percent to 100 percent.
  • In Arizona, some ranchers were liquidating herds.
  • Nevada's Lake Mead was at its lowest level in 30 years as water was redirected from Hoover Dam to other watersheds. Deer hunting quotas have been cut because the herd is decimated.
  • In New Mexico, water was flowing at less than 10 percent of average on the Rio Grande, the lowest level in 102 years.

• The current drought covers much of the same region as it did in 2000 when wildfires burned approximately 8.4 million acres (3.4 million hectares) in the U.S.
• By early June 2002, wildfires had burned more than 1.3 million acres (526,000 hectares) in the U.S., approximately 100,000 more acres (40,000 hectares) than for the same period in 2000, which was one of the worst wildfire seasons in 50 years.
• Unlike 2000, when only 22% of the contiguous U.S. was in severe to extreme drought at the end of May (based on the Palmer Hydrological Drought Index), the same level of drought severity now affects more than 29% of the U.S. with the potential for worsening conditions as the country enters the summer season.
• By the end of May 2002, the Palmer Hydrological Drought Index, integrated across the summer 2000 wildfire region, had reached levels comparable to the severity experienced during the peak (July-September) of the summer 2000 fire season.
• From MSNBC News:
  • The fires have been fueled by some of the driest conditions on record, ravaging ranches and wildlife, and taxing firefighting resources brought on months ahead of schedule. Every one knows the hottest and driest months are still ahead. "This is by far the most aggressive fire season I've ever seen," said Bill Wilcox, a fire management officer for Arizona's Coronado National Forest.
  • The Southwest and Southern California are ripe for the riskiest fire season ever, said Edy Williams-Rhodes, fire management director for the Forest Service's southwestern region.

The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Palmer Z Index are used as measures of short-term drought. Research by Tom Karl (1986) suggests that the Z Index may be a useful indicator of fire potential. The SPI (see maps to right) illustrate the magnitude of the dryness over the Southwest during May and spring. The Z Index map (below) shows the combination of hot and dry weather during May.

Karl, T.R., 1986. "The sensitivity of the Palmer Drought Severity Index and Palmer's Z-Index to their calibration coefficients including potential evapotranspiration." Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology, 25:77-86.

Cook, E.R., Meko, D.M., Stahle, D.W. and Cleaveland, M.K. 1999. "Drought reconstructions for the continental United States." Journal of Climate, 12:1145-1162.

Woodhouse, C.A. In review. "A 431-year reconstruction of western Colorado snowpack." Journal of Climate.

• Several fires in Colorado, started by carelessly lit campfires and other human activities, have destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents and park visitors. Federal lands in five Colorado counties have been closed to all uses and the state has banned all public use of fire on all federal lands throughout Colorado's borders. "This is a potential tragedy of epic proportions, and the fire season isn't even upon us," Governor Bill Owens said (Environment News Service).
• All of Colorado's 64 counties have been designated federal disaster areas by the USDA because of the ongoing drought, in what farmers are calling the worst dryness in a half-century (AP 5/30).
• Snowpack levels are at all-time lows. Denver will shut off 14 public fountains this summer (NBC).

• According to The Arizona Republic, wildlife has been devastated and reservoir, lake, and streamflow levels have dropped to record or near-record lows. The fire danger is high across the state, and the city of Flagstaff implemented mandatory outdoor watering restrictions during May. Rangers have noted the impact of the drought on forests: "Douglas fir trees are beginning to die of a lack of water, and even drought-resistant trees such as junipers and piņon pines are starting to show stress."
• On May 17, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman designated the entire state of Arizona as a drought disaster area.
• Governor Jane Hull activated a state emergency drought response plan and formed a drought task force coordinated through the state Agriculture Department and the Division of Emergency Management.
• Cattlemen have been severely impacted. According to The Arizona Republic, while most of the state's farmers have enough water this year, some already are hurting, and all fret about next year's cattle and crops if the drought continues.
• The drought has seriously impacted the Navajo Nation. According to news reports (The Arizona Republic):
  • More than 7,000 stock ponds are dry across 17 million acres of the reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Many of the tribe's 900 windmills, most of them pumping groundwater from shallow, subsurface pools, are expected to stop producing within the next month.
  • Thousands of head of livestock, as well as the tribe's world-famous rural traditions, are threatened.
  • People have described the drought with words like: "desperate situation", "never seen a drought like this before", "it looks like another planet".
• The Tohono O'odham Nation declared a state of emergency by month's end as dwindling water supplies threatened livestock (The Arizona Republic).
• According to an early June drought situation report by the Arizona Division of Emergency Management:
  • Marginal snowpack conditions and well below normal winter rainfall resulted in very low streamflow and reservoir levels in the state. Winter precipitation amounts have been well below normal for six of the last seven years, leading to a serious drought outlook for the next several months.
  • Water supply problems are expected in many parts of the state, although no critical shortages had developed by the beginning of June. Eight counties, and the Navajo and Tohono O'odham Nations, have declared drought emergencies.
  • The wildland fire season has been exceptionally active so far, due to the very dry condition of the grasses in the rangelands, and because of the warm, dry, and windy conditions.
• As noted by The Arizona Republic, "the current drought is the state's worst drought since the 1950s, and although it doesn't rival the 1890s, when it was so dry and windy that a good 6 inches of the state's topsoil blew away, the state is parched. We have the genesis of the worst fire season and the worst drought in history, according to the Arizona Farm Bureau."