About AZMap

What this is

Most of Arizona's extreme weather arrives in a few intense months. The summer monsoon brings lightning, flash floods, and haboobs (the desert's towering dust storms). Fire season overlaps it, and the reservoirs and rivers that carry the state through the year rise and fall with both. AZMap puts those conditions on one screen: what is happening now, where, and how unusual it is.

Everything on the map comes from the agencies that measure it, and their vocabulary stays intact. A stream gauge labeled Much above normal carries the exact tier USGS WaterWatch assigns it, and a Flash Flood Warning is the National Weather Service's product verbatim. The map reports what the data says and does not editorialize.

Data qualifiers follow each source's own designation and are listed per source below. Some readings may be missing during sensor maintenance, telemetry outages, or seasonal flow conditions. Empty states surface quietly rather than papering over the gap.

Data sources

Each layer cites its source in the detail modal and in the footer attribution. Update cadences are upstream-determined and subject to change.

• Radar reflectivity

  NOAA MRMS via mapservices.weather.noaa.gov · ~2 minutes

• Satellite clouds

  NASA GIBS, GOES-West ABI GeoColor · ~10 minutes

• Lightning flash

  NOAA GOES-18 Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) · ~20 seconds

• Wildfire incidents and perimeters

  NIFC Wildland Fire Interagency Geospatial Services (WFIGS) · ~5 minutes · Figures update as the incident is reported

• Satellite hotspots

  NASA FIRMS / VIIRS · Several times per day

• Surface temperatures

  NWS Aviation Weather Center (AWC) METAR observations · Hourly

• Streamflow and stage

  USGS WaterServices instantaneous values and daily statistics · Every 15 to 60 minutes · Provisional data, subject to revision

• Flood stages and forecasts

  NWS National Water Prediction Service (NWPS) gauge thresholds and 72-hour forecasts · Several times per day

• Air quality

  EPA AirNow monitor observations · Hourly · Preliminary data, subject to change

• Reservoir levels

  USBR Reclamation Information Sharing Environment (RISE) for the Colorado basin, Salt River Project (SRP) for the Salt and Verde chain · Daily

• Drought tiers

  U.S. Drought Monitor (NOAA, USDA, NDMC) · Weekly

• Severe-weather alerts

  NWS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) feed at api.weather.gov · Continuous

• Basemap

  Mapbox, data © Mapbox and © OpenStreetMap contributors

News and imagery

Fire and reservoir pages carry a curated timeline of coverage alongside the data: official updates and photos from InciWeb, agency newsrooms, and reporting from Arizona news outlets, with video from broadcasters where it exists. Every item links to its original source. News coverage provides context. It is never used as a classification authority.

Methodology

Every classification, threshold, and tier label on the map comes from a recognized authoritative source. Federal agencies are the default (USGS, NWS, NOAA, EPA, USBR, USDA, NDMC). Reputable non-federal sources are acceptable when federal data is insufficient or a better option exists, including Salt River Project for Salt and Verde reservoir storage. Consumer weather apps and unsourced aggregators are not used as classification authorities.

Streamflow tiers follow USGS WaterWatch breakpoints exactly. Flood stages and forecasts follow the NWS National Water Prediction Service (NWPS, formerly AHPS). Air quality categories follow the EPA Air Quality Index (AQI). Drought tiers follow the U.S. Drought Monitor (D0 through D4). Severe-weather alerts follow the NWS Common Alerting Protocol severity scale. Reservoir thresholds for Mead and Powell follow the federally codified Drought Contingency Plan and Drought Response Operations Agreement.

What this isn't

AZMap is an experiment. It is not an operational tool, not a forecast, and not a substitute for official guidance. For evacuation orders, road closures, shelter information, or active-incident updates, see the National Weather Service and Arizona emergency services. The map's role is observational. AZMap makes no forecasts of its own. Where forecast-based tiers appear, such as flood risk in the next 72 hours, they republish NWS products.