Just last week, there were moderate and severe drought conditions across portions of northern Virginia, central Virginia and central Maryland. But things might be looking up.
“This week’s drought monitor shows vast improvement,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Erik Taylor. “That is due to all the gray, gloomy days that we saw out there.”
Taylor said the remnants of Hurricane Helene led to day after day of rainy conditions over the weekend and into the week.
Last month, the U.S. Drought Monitor found that portions of Fairfax, Loudoun and Montgomery counties were in “moderate drought,” while most areas in Virginia and much of Maryland’s Eastern Shore were considered “abnormally dry,” but not in a drought. Before that, months of record-breaking high temperatures in the summer posed a threat to the area’s water levels.
“Some of those heavier bands really lined up across center parts of Virginia, through the Shenandoah Valley, where we really did need the rain. Many of those locations, over the last couple of days, actually picked up anywhere between eight to 12 inches (of rain),” Taylor said.
There still are some drought conditions sticking around in western and northeast Maryland, and in Virginia along the West Virginia border.
“We’re really not seeing any drought conditions left over across much of central Virginia. From about Thursday and Friday last week, all the way up until (Wednesday this week), we continue to see bands of precipitation over the past couple of days,” he said.
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