To Nobody's Surprise, Drought Gets Much Worse In Vermont/New England

The U.S. Drought Monitor, updated this 
morning, shows worsening conditions in 
Vermont. A new sliver of extreme
drought (red shading) has popped
up in the Connecticut River Valley.
Darker orange is severe drought and
lighter orange is moderate drought. 

 The latest weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, hot off the press this morning, confirms the depressing news:  

The drought in Vermont and in much of the rest of New England continues to get worse. 

It hasn't rained since the last weekly report came out, so the news isn't surprising. But it underscores how bad things are getting. 

All of Vermont except the extreme south and extreme northwest is now in severe drought, according to the weekly monitor.  

Last week, 59 percent of the state was in severe drought with the rest being in moderate drought. This morning's report shows 78 percent of the Green Mountain State in severe drought. 

A small area of extreme drought that was confined to a limited portion of western New Hampshire last week has expanded. 

A sliver of the central Connecticut River Valley in Vermont between about Windsor and Newbury is now considered to be in extreme drought. 

The expanded area of extreme drought also now extends across central New Hampshire into southwest Maine. New Hampshire is arguably the hardest hit state so far in this Northeast drought. Around 73 percent of the Granite State is in at least severe drought, up from 52 percent last week. And 23 percent of  New Hampshire is in extreme drought, up from just 7 percent last week. 

Drought is expanding in northern New York, too. It covers all of eastern parts of that state along the Vermont border and is extending into the Adirondacks and parts of the St. Lawrence Valley. 

Actually, despite a few wet areas, the continental U.S. is getting drier. Last week, about 36 percent of the nation was in drought. This week, it's 41 percent. 

THE FORECAST

Very low water levels along the Lamoille River in 
Jeffersonville, Vermont Tuesday. 

Things continue to look grim in terms of rainfall around Vermont. I suppose the next week will be wetter than the one we just had. 

Only because most of us didn't get a drop of rain in the past seven days, and there's actually chances for sprinkles over the next week.  

Sprinkles aren't going to cut it, so the drought will continue to worsen. 

It means wells will continue to go dry, water in rivers and lakes will continue to recede from in some cases already record low levels.  At least six river gauges in Vermont were recording record low levels on Tuesday. 

And the fire danger will continue to rise. 

After the widely scattered sprinkles that might or might not hit tonight, that's it for rain until at least next Tuesday. 

I continue to be unimpressed with the forecast for next week and its rain chances. A storm that will be cut off from the main jet stream looks like it might get suppressed to our south. That would mean yet another system that promised to provide a little rain could just miss us entirely around next Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Sound familiar?

Other potential weather fronts coming after that look like they might be under-perform as well. Long range forecasts taking us into the beginning of October also paint a dry picture for Vermont and surrounding areas.

This drought has gotten incredibly frustrating, persistent, damaging and depressing.  I honestly wonder when it will even really rain again.