Drought Worsens In Vermont/Northeast As Expected

We're keeping tabs on the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, and the latest one came out this morning. 

As expected, abnormally dryness and drought
expanded in Vermont in the past week due to
a continuing lack of precipitation. A small
area of southern Vermont was upgraded
from moderate to severe drought. 

As expected, drought in the Northeast, including here in Vermont worsened a little more as the rain continues to fail us. 

The nation as a whole improved slightly from last week, thanks mostly to rain and snow in the middle of the nation and in the southeastern Rockies. 

Last week about 88 percent of the nation was abnormally dry. Now it's 83 percent, which is still ridiculously high. 

The Northeast once again got little rain in the past week, and it's showing. 

Almost the entire Northeast, a region extending from West Virginia to Maine, is at least abnormally dry if not in drought, with only five percent of the region still being deemed not excessively dry. 

The area under actual drought ticked up a little, from a little more than 56 percent of the region last week 58 percent this week.

New Jersey and Massachusetts seem to be doing the worst at the moment. In New Jersey, more than a quarter of the state is in extreme drought. The entire state is in severe drought, the first time in this dry episode New Jersey has gotten that designation. 

Last week, only about a third of Massachusetts was in severe drought. Now it's two thirds of the state.  

VERMONT WORSE, TOO

Virtually the entire Northeast is abnormally
dry or in drought with little rain in the forecast.

Here in Vermont, more than 77 percent of the state is now regarding as at least abnormally dry, up sharply from 64 percent last week. The only area barely hanging on to adequate soil moisture is most of the Champlain Valley. 

The drought area in southern Vermont has remained about the same size since last week.  However, the U.S. Drought Monitor upgraded a small area of the state near the Massachusetts border from moderate drought to severe drought. 

The upgrade means that area is now even more susceptible to problems with ground water shortages and dry irrigation ponds. Trees would be drier and more brittle, too, making them more susceptible to burning up in a wildfire. 

FORECAST

We still seem to have an anti-rain force field over the Northeast that shows no signs of going away. A fairly narrow zone across the Northeast between western New York and Pennsylvania and eastern Maine looks like they'll have very little rain over the next seven days. 

Any place that gets a quarter inch in that time period will be lucky. Most places will see less. 

I guess we're going to keep seeing news of wildfires, even as winter rapidly closes in.