Every Thursday we get new data in from the Drought Monitor which paints a picture of what's going on in terms of our drought. Here's the latest:
The Drought Monitor web site is here:
http://www.droughtmonitor.unl.edu/monitor.html
The data that I will present here is given in percentages. There are levels of drought put forth by the DM.
Abnormally Dry
Moderate Drought
Severe Drought
Extreme Drought
Exceptional Drought
IN THE NORTHEAST
| NONE | ABNORMALLY DRY | MODERATE DROUGHT | SEVERE DROUGHT | |
| 3 MONTHS AGO | 70.83% | 29.17% | 4.89% | 0.24% |
| LAST WEEK | 54.73% | 45.27% | 12.05% | 1.94% |
| AUGUST 28 | 55.19% | 44.81% | 11.48% | 0.94% |
You can see here that when comparing this week's data to three months ago, conditions have gotten a lot drier across the Northeast. The change from last week to this week was pretty minimal, as the area of abnormally dry, moderately dry, and severely dry all decreased.
However close to home, in Vermont for instance, the dry weather has worsened drought in the last week. Vermont went from 7.5% of the state being abnormally dry to 52.3% this week!
Thanks to Chief Meteorologist Kerrin Jeromin, here are some stats on rainfall deficits since June 1 in our area:
Montpelier, VT: -1.37"
Burlington, VT: -1.62"
St. Johnsbury, VT: -2.54"
Springfield, VT: -2.70"
Let's talk national, as the Midwest has been the worst hit by this drought of 2012.
Well that part of the country continues to see exceptional drought according to the DM. Remember that's the worst on the list, something that doesn't happen too often.
When looking at the lower 48, here's the recap from three months ago, to last week, to this week.
| ABNORMALLY DRY | MODERATE DROUGHT | SEVERE DROUGHT | EXCEPTIONAL DROUGHT | |
| 3 MONTHS AGO | 64.02% | 37.37% | 18.94% | 0.66% |
| LAST WEEK | 77.28% | 63.20% | 44.03% | 6.31% |
| AUGUST 28 | 77.69% | 62.89% | 42.34% | 6.04% |
The drought has remained relatively the same for the contiguous United States. It has changed very little, I would say getting very slightly worse.
Looking ahead to the next one to three months, the Climate Prediction Center of NOAA forecast is for more of the country to get drier-than-average weather than the area of wetter-than-average weather. In other words it looks like it will get slightly worse than better, but I also don't consider myself a climate forecaster. I'll have to wait and see.
-Meteorologist Steve Glazier
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