Map shows where severe drought is taking hold in Massachusetts for first time in 2 years
BOSTON - For the first time in more than two years, a rather sizable portion of Massachusetts is now considered to be in a severe drought.
Second driest fall on record in Boston
In the past seven days, the moderate drought region has doubled from 35% to 70%, and now, 14% of Massachusetts, including parts of Suffolk, Norfolk, Middlesex, and Essex counties, have risen to severe drought levels.
This is no surprise given the extremely dry weather pattern as of late. For the month of October, Boston received less than an inch of water, nearly three inches below the average.
Couple that with a very dry September and that puts most of the region between five to six inches below the average rainfall in the last two months.
This is truly rarified air. Two months into meteorological fall, Boston officially is the second driest on record and Worcester is first.
Little rain in the forecast
There is no immediate pattern change coming. A very weak cold front will pass through Friday morning bringing just a few sprinkles, likely nothing even measurable in most of southern New England. The weekend will be much cooler, but dry as a bone.
Next week features more of the same. We have a chance at another weak round of sprinkles Monday night into Tuesday, but no significant rain or storminess is in the cards in the near future.
This is still considered a short-term drought and thankfully it is coming at a time of year when water supplies are not as critical. The growing season is over, so the impact on farmers, for now, will be minimal.
Water shortages are also not a top-of-mind issue this time of year since most folks have stopped using irrigation. If you have planted grass seed over the last few weeks you will certainly need to keep those areas watered for now. Be sure to keep the ground moist around any newly planted shrubs to ensure proper root growth and protection.
How a drought impacts winter weather
If we look through Boston's history, a dry fall often has lingering impacts on the winter that follows. In fact, the data shows that in nearly every case, the pattern continues.
If we take the 10 driest fall seasons on record in Boston, eight of them had below-average snowfalls that winter. In many cases, it was well below the average. Boston averages about 49 inches of snow in a season ... the average for those 10 winters was about 28 inches of snow.
It is worth noting that most of the dataset is old, from the early and mid-1900s and obviously the state of our planet and atmosphere is much different now than it was then. If November ends up being a wet month, that could also flip the script on winter.