Drought Eases In Western Vermont, Continues Raging In East; Other Parts Of Northeast Improve Somewhat

Drought conditions improved somewhat since
last week in western Vermont. Most areas west
of the Green Mountains improved from 
severe to moderate drought. A small area
in southwest Vermont came out of drought.
Eastern Vermont remains mired in
extreme drought. 

 Last week's heavy rains in parts of Vermont helped ease the drought in western parts of the state, though eastern areas of the Green Mountain State are still mired in extreme drought.

This according to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, which came out this morning. 

This week's report for Vermont had some changes compared to last week. 

An area of extreme drought in Addison County a week earlier has been downgraded to severe drought. 

Last week's Drought Monitor had a lower grade moderate drought in a small area of northwest Vermont and a small corner of southwest Vermont.  The rest of western Vermont was in severe drought.

The update out this morning shows that severe drought in western Vermont improved to moderate drought, except for that patch in Addison County that is now in severe drought.

And, for the first time since August 26, a little piece of Vermont is no longer in drought. That tiny corner of southwestern Rutland County is now just "abnormally dry" and not official in drought. 

This leaves just 1.35 percent of Vermont out of the drought. Tiny, but it's a start.  

Overall, about 63 percent of Vermont are in severe or extreme drought, compared to 88 percent last week. 

The changes in this morning's Drought Monitor for Vermont make sense. 

The rain last week focused on western Vermont, and largely avoided eastern parts of the state. That's why areas of Vermont east of the Green Mountains and north of Springfield are still in extreme drought. 

For the northeastern United States overall, last week's rains created some slight improvements but dryness and drought are at near record highs for the region. About 85 percent of the Northeast was abnormally dry or in drought, compared to 93.4 percent last week. As extensive as the dryness is, it's at its lowest level since mid-September. 

In New Hampshire, drought conditions were unchanged from the week before. Nearly 83 percent of the Granite State was at least in severe drought, with 37 percent in extreme drought.  There were inconsequential adjustments to drought conditions in Maine, but overall things have neither improved or deteriorated there since last week. 

New York saw some noticeable improvement. Severe drought virtually disappeared from the Empire State for the first time since August 26. Technically, there is a bit of severe drought in New York, but it covers just 0.07 percent of the state, so basically nothing. 

Nearly 55 percent of New York is in drought, compared to 70 percent last week.  

THE OUTLOOK

The U.S. Drought Monitor that comes out every Thursday takes into account conditions through Tuesday, two days before the Monitor is published. 

It did rain and snow some in Vermont yesterday, and some more precipitation is in the forecast over the next few days. But current predictions don't give us a lot of rain through next Tuesday. Give or take, we can expect perhaps, roughly, a half inch of rain or melted snow.

 I'm guessing that won't be enough to create much further improvement in the drought, but those overall dry conditions likely won't worsen, either. Longer range forecasts are kind of "meh" if you want drought relief.

NOAA's extended outlooks, covering the period from November 11 to 19, predicts near to below normal precipitation in Vermont, with the odds tilted a bit more toward below normal in southern Vermont. 

That's not great, as we really need some soaking rains, I'm talking inches of rain. That doesn't seem to be in the cards, at least for now. 

We're grateful for the slight improvements we've seen in the Vermont drought situation. But we're still stuck with a miserably dry situation heading into winter. Especially in eastern Vermont.