Drought Hangs On In Eastern Vermont, While Last Vestiges Of It Disappearing West

Drought conditions held firm in Northeastern Vermont
with this week's U.S Drought Monitor, but the
lower level abnormally dry conditions 
western Vermont continued to fade. 

The big drought, remember that?

It's been out of the headlines here in the Green Mountain State lately since the worst of it eased in the late autumn. It's hard to think there's drought while you're playing in the snow. .

But the drought is not dead yet.  Drought conditions remained unchanged in eastern Vermont, according to today's weekly U.S. Drought Monitor. However, the last vestiges of the drought are slowly disappearing from western parts of the state

Forty-one percent of Vermont remains in drought, same as last week. The drought area is east of the Green Mountains north of about Springfield. Severe drought is hanging on in the Northeast Kingdom, and has not improved since last week. 

Last week, abnormally dry condition - a step below drought - continued in western Vermont except in western Chittenden and Franklin counties, where the dry conditions has officially ended. This week, the area that were no longer abnormally dry and had adequate moisture expanded into Addison and Rutland counties.  

Abnormally dry conditions also contracted out of Chittenden County and all but the extreme eastern edge of Franklin County. 

Precipitation was less than stellar in Vermont in the seven days ending on Tuesday, which is the period this week's Drought Monitor covers. But at least it did rain and snow some, so that helped a little. A thaw during that period also melted snow which soaked into the ground. 

Elsewhere, the Drought Monitor only detected minuscule improvements in the drought over in New Hampshire and Maine. New York, which has generally had a somewhat less severe drought than New England, showed some improvement. 

OUTLOOK

Any improvement will continue to be slow in Vermont and the rest of the North Country.  The outlook for the next week or so only calls for occasional chances of light snow. If you melt the expected snow down over the next seven days, you'd only get about a quarter inch of rain equivalent. 

Much below normal temperatures will continue to harden the ground
, which will help remaining drought conditions literally freeze in place 

What snow we do get will be banked until any off-season thaws we get later this winter, or will wait for spring.