Arid Lands & Resources

Above normal temperatures and a lack of rain are a bad combination when it comes to the drought in Arizona.

Coming to Tucson as an incoming University of Arizona freshman or transfer student means it is safe to say you will most likely not have to deal with your homework getting sucked up by a tornado, your dorm collapsing from a magnitude 8 earthquake or your Uber getting swept away by a tsunami on its way to pick you up.

Firefighters have mostly contained the Bighorn Fire, which has consumed more than 119,000 acres of the Santa Catalina Mountains since a bolt of lightning set the blaze off on the night of Friday, June 5.

The cause of the drop in water levels at Quitobaquito Springs is complicated, experts say.

Researchers at the University of Arizona said it's because stabilizing materials for the ground, like plants and trees, are burnt.

Arizona’s already hot and dry. So if it gets hotter and drier – we’re toast. Right? Well, not necessarily – leastwise, not on the Salt and Verde watersheds.

Arizona’s in the midst of perhaps the worst drought in 1,200 years, regardless of the blessings of a relatively normal winter, according to study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science.