- About Us - SW Climate February 2012 La Niña Drought Tracker
February 08, 2012 / Vol. 2 / Issue 3 / Drought Tracker / A
Publication by CLIMAS After a wet December, more typical, dry La
Niña conditions returned in January. Across Arizona and New
Mexico precipitation generally was less than 50 percent of
average, with large swaths of both states experiencing less than
25 percent of average (top figure). Most of the West also
experienced scant rain and snow, including the mountains of the
Upper Colorado River Basin, where about 70 percent of the water
in the Colorado River originates. In many La Niña winters, the
impacts of dry conditions are minimized by average or above-
average snow in these mountains, which was the case last winter.
This year, however, storms have been pushed farther north than
typical by a dome of high-pressure off the northwestern coast.
The Pacific Northwest, for example, which typically bares the
brunt of winter storms during La Niña, was exceptionally dry for
most of December and Januar