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Large and intense droughts raise concerns, but equally intense droughts may occur at smaller spatial scales, even when large droughts don't. Typical rangeland management units are 5-15 km2, therefore detecting small-scale droughts is critical. In this study we describe, a) the frequency and duration of different size drought patches, b) How those patterns differ between annual and seasonal time-frames, and c) How those patterns differ after 1996. Our work represents the 225 km2 Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER) in southern Arizona with 73 y of monthly precipitation from 22 gauges, temperature from PRISM. The SRER divided into 100 1.5km*1.5km cells, precipitation interpolated from 22 gauges. Time-frames were Winter (Oct-May), Summer (Jun-Sep), and Water Year (Oct-Sep). We report drought with the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) because it includes precipitation and temperature metrics. Drought defined as the driest 20th percentile (driest 15 y) for each cell. Contiguous drought cells define a drought patch. Since 1996, drought is 2.5-12 times more frequent and up to 2.6 times longer, drought patches the size of pastures and water units occurred in 59-77% of years, compared to 16-28% of years before 1996, and winter drought frequency increased 150-360%. Drought frequency decreases as patch size increases, but the changes in frequency since 1996 were not uniform across patch sizes. For Water Year (12-month) time frame, drought frequency increased 4-fold for most patch sizes, and 8-12 fold for the largest sizes. For Seasonal (4-8 month) time frame, drought frequency increased 2.5-3 fold for all patch sizes. This difference resulted from a greater contribution of the large patches (>50 cells or 50% of SRER) of winter drought after 1996. In response to these conditions, managers should make efforts to detect the fine-scale pattern of drought, and increase flexibility in operations to avoid the drought patches.