Surprise! Despite Recent Rain And Snow, Vermont Drought Worsens

I was taken a little aback by the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor that came out Thursday. 

Despite some precipitation in the past week,
drought expanded in Vermont between
last week and this week. Everything on 
this map in orange is drought. Last week
only southern Vermont was deemed 
to be having a drought. Yellow zone
in Champlain Valley is regarded as
"abnormally dry."

I've been closely watching it all autumn as drought enveloped the Northeast.  

The latest report shows drought in Vermont worsened noticeably, despite the recent rains and snows we've had. 

A week ago, drought was limited to the southern third or so of Vermont, with abnormally dry conditions everywhere else except the Champlain Valley, which was technically hanging on to no drought issues.

This week, drought has expanded to include all of Vermont except the Champlain Valley. Meanwhile all of the Champlain Valley is regarded as "abnormally dry"

True, the recent rain and snow hasn't been particularly heavy, so you wouldn't expect it to erase much of the drought. But it looks like this drought thing is stubborn. 

It turns out the storminess in the East last week focused on the areas where the drought is more intense than it was in Vermont, which of course is good thing.  However, though it rained and snowed in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, precipitation was still a little below normal, so the drought worsened in those three states, according to U.S. Drought Monitor. 

Meanwhile, there was some improvement in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia. Most of the improvement in those states is where all the lake effect snow has been hitting. That lake effect has been extending at least a little into the mountains of West Virginia and far western Maryland. 

The drought in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts didn't improve, but at least it didn't get any worse.

The entire Northeast is expecting some rounds of rain and snow during the upcoming week. The precipitation could be relatively heavy - again a good thing - but we don't yet know whether the heavier stuff will come up into northern New England or not. 

In Vermont, precipitation  has lately been avoiding the Champlain Valley in particularly  The most recent storm on Wednesday and yesterday largely avoided the valley, except for its far northern end. Burlington has received only 0.02 inches of melted snow in the opening week of December. 

Though the drought isn't super severe in Vermont, we'll want a wet winter and early spring with plenty of either deep snow that will melt into the ground eventually or slow soaking rainstorms, especially in the spring to avoid messing with the ski season.

Of course we don't know how that will turn out. 

Beyond next week, signals are mixed on whether the weather pattern will be dry or wet, or just "meh" over Vermont and the rest of the Northeast.