PHOTO: Arizona’s not on fire like California, Washington and Oregon.
But that doesn’t mean we’re not having our own little disaster.
On the heels of “exceptional” drought and the hottest, driest Arizona summer on record, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared farmers and ranchers in 13 Arizona counties each eligible for up to $500,000 in emergency disaster loans due to the drought.
That includes Gila County, one of the four worst-hit counties in the state.
And it could easily get worse.
We’re probably in for a warm, dry winter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The surface waters of the tropical Pacific have warmed up, creating La Niña conditions that normally produce a dry, warm winter in the Southwest. The forecast is more gloomy than an earlier Farmer’s Almanac forecast of a near-normal winter.