Last Week's Drenching Rainstorm Improved Vermont/New England Drought Only A Little

Yes, we had heavy rain in Vermont a little over a 
week ago, but the latest U.S Drought Monitor still
has southern Vermont in drought, (orange shading)
and the rest of the state as abnormally
dry (yellow shading)

 On Wednesday, December 11, between 1.5 and 2.5 inches of rain drenched Vermont. That was a pretty soggy rainstorms for December, dropping almost as much precipitation as some sections of the state get all month. 

It came during a drought, so that prevented any real flood problems. Despite all the rain, the episode proved how hard it is to erase a drought once it becomes established.  These things never go away after just one good rainstorm. 

Those drought conditions did improve with the rainstorm, but only to an extent. 

Every corner of the state is still regarded as abnormally dry, even though you might have encountered a little mud underfoot this week. 

But before the storm, drought encompassed all of Vermont except the Champlain Valley, which was just "abnormally dry" according to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor. 

Last Wednesday's storm erased the drought that covered most of northern and central Vermont, but it's still ongoing across southern Vermont. Instead of 70 percent of Vermont in drought, only 23 percent is as of this week. 

All of southern Vermont except a narrow strip right along the New York border is still considered in drought. The southeast corner of Vermont, down by Brattleboro, is still actually in severe drought. 

As the ground freezes up for winter now, I imagine it will be hard to erase the drought or abnormally dry conditions in the state.  I'm guessing the only way we'll get rid of the dryness once and for all is to see some nice accumulations of snow building up, then some decent spring rains.

Vermont has gotten a little more precipitation since the storm on December 11, but not all that much. 

Last week's storminess also affected the rest of the Northeast, and drought improved  as a whole across that entire region as well.  A week early, about 65 percent of the Northeast was in drought, this week, it's down to 46 percent.

An area of extreme drought in Massachusetts was reduced in severity to severe drought. It doesn't sound like an improvement but it is.  Almost every state in the region saw some improvement, but the U.S. Drought Monitor says it's still going to take a lot more precipitation for true relief from the drought.

Hey, at least the forests aren't burning like they were back in November.  

The outlook is mixed for more substantial precipitation in the coming coming weeks. It looks like it will probably be drier than normal for the next week or so in Vermont, though there will still probably be some episodes of light precipitation.

It does seem possible the weather pattern could get stormier beyond about a week from now.