The new Drought Monitor was released Thursday. Even with pictures of flooding in the Springfield, Massachusetts, area this week, the drought has worsened. It's the worst drought in 14 years with severe drought conditions across 62-percent of Massachusetts. Only one part of New England has seen an improvement in drought conditions - that's southeastern Rhode Island.
We've also switched from a "short term" drought to a "long term" drought. That means we've seen drought conditions persist for more than six months.
During a "long term" drought we also switch from seeing primarily agricultural impacts to hydrologic (water flow and lake levels) and ecological impacts. If you've driven Rte. 128 over the last couple of weeks, some trees are starting to die. According to a drought related article by Colorado State, "A general rule of thumb is to use approximately 10 gallons of water per inch of trunk diameter for each watering." That's a lot of water and we haven't seen nearly enough rain for some trees.
As far as some relief - don't expect any significant rain over the next 10 days.
