Recent rain puts significant dent in Massachusetts drought status
By Terry Eliasen, Meteorologist, WBZ-TV Exec. Weather Producer
BOSTON – For the first time in months, we finally have some good news with regards to drought. The updated drought monitor released Thursday morning (with data as of 8 a.m. Tuesday), showed a significant decrease in the hardest hit areas of Massachusetts.
In the last 7 days, the area of "extreme drought" dropped from 38% to just under 9%.
The only remaining areas of extreme drought are right along the coastline from Boston to Cape Ann and the extreme South Coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Massachusetts only saw a small drop in the "severe drought" area, from 94% of the state to 86%, but again, it marks the first improvement in drought status since early July when the severe areas first appeared.
You can clearly see the disparity in the numbers from city to city across southern New England.
Boston only received about an inch of rain earlier this week, missing out on the real deluge. The city remains nearly 10 inches below the average water to date for 2022.
However, looking at Worcester and Providence the tables have turned in a major way. The City of Worcester is now within an inch of average to date and Providence is just 3 inches below the average. One of the hardest hit areas by the drought was the Merrimack Valley. That area received 3-5 inches of water between Monday and Tuesday, enough to completely remove the "extreme drought" wording.
Despite all of this good news, we cannot declare the drought over. All of Massachusetts and southern New England are still in some sort of drought category, including 86% of Massachusetts in the "severe" range. So, if we continue to get weekly deluges, the drought could be all but wiped out within a month or two. However, the possibility exists that we could revert back to extreme drought with a drier than average fall season.
We certainly don't have any rain in the forecast through the weekend (I am sure most of you are OK with that), but it does appear that by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week we should get another round of rainfall.
Speaking of the Weekend ... we have a great stretch ahead! In fact, the WBZ Weather Team has declared Friday a "WINNER Weather Day." Tons of sunshine, light winds and very comfy temperatures (low humidity) will make for an absolutely delightful end to the week.
And for the weekend, it will be warmer and a bit more humid, but still plenty of sunshine!
Follow Terry on Twitter @TerryWBZ
