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Drought continues to lessen in Boston area
By adamg on Thu, 01/26/2017 - 8:51am
The newest Massachusetts drought map shows eastern Massachusetts is now in a "moderate" drought, down from the "severe" drought we were in just last week - and the "extreme" drought in September.
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Comments
Was that chart approved?
SEE! Trump is doing great things.
Joking aside, it's nerve racking to think data like this might soon be withheld or altered if it fails to fit a political narrative.
I'm deeply offended by the
I'm deeply offended by the deliberate use of the words "moderate" and "extreme" here to bait commenters....
...sorry for the dry humor.
Is there a place that you can
Is there a place that you can check how many inches of rain we're missing? I found a CBS article from September that indicates we were 18" below where we should be but I wonder how that number has been revised since then. Is there a "real-time" tracker? I can't find it on the drought monitor page linked above.
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/09/15/what-would-it-take-to-end-the-new-...
Should be able to see it in the drought monitor
One of the indices they track is recent precipitation. http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Drought/Monitoring/spi.shtml
National Weather Service in Taunton is also a good resource: http://w2.weather.gov/climate/index.php?wfo=box
I'll give you a rough estimate: we have not made up that deficit very much at all, and the recovery level depends on where in the state that you are.
Recent months have seen most areas at average, or slightly below or above normal levels of rain. This latest watering has helped a great deal - we may be over average for January.
That's it - we are holding ground in most places, some are getting a bit ahead with these recent rains. The last couple of storms made up for the below normal rains in southeast MA in the late fall, but we aren't yet at the point of making up. Pretty much holding ground with a little improvement.
What has happened is that people took this seriously and demand for water dropped pretty quickly, even for those on the MWRA system. That helps - but we are a long way from being out of the desert just yet.
ADDED: bear in mind that the drought index covers fire danger and crop moisture, both of which are much better in the winter.
The summer causes a huge
The summer causes a huge increase in water usage when people water their lawns.
Indeed
And normally that doesn't matter because our aquifers and reservoirs are replenished by rain in the fall and spring and snow in the winter. Our problem has been we just weren't getting enough of that - even in 2015, because all that snow was relatively light in moisture content.
That's true to a certain
That's true to a certain amount, but a lot of places have been having restrictions for years because they just didn't have enough in their local situation as they grew in size.
Don't bet on that watering yet
Many of the reservoirs and many communities dependent on groundwater haven't seen the recharge they need to allow that come summer.
Most systems are annual or bi-annual - meaning that they only carry enough water for one to two years at "normal" usage rates. The drought has hit hard, and storage will have to come back up before they allow "unnecessary" watering.
The Quabbin is still not rebounding - it dropped into the first level of drought a couple of months ago. However, it's part of one of the most resilient water systems on the planet. By comparison, NYC's water storage is equivalent to 1.7 times MWRA storage capacity and serves over five times as many people.
So, yes, watering lawns and washing cars does have a serious impact - one that was reduced or eliminated last summer. But we usually get 12-15 inches of rain during the summer, too. That didn't happen, and we are still trying to catch up.
The issue of people watering
The issue of people watering their lawns wasn't close to gone. A lot of people reportedly went right on watering because the fines weren't enough to discourage it.
It's definitely true though that a lot of places are still not at their normal amount, as you explained.
How I judge the drought
When I can no longer walk around the exposed bottom of Jamaica Pond AND when the reservoir in Waltham is no longer a sea of exposed rocks, THEN I'll feel good about the end of the drought.
Exactly
I totally understand that there are groundwater issues and concern with vegetation, but the reservoirs are the best sign of whether or not we should be worried.
Somehow I was by the Randolph Reservoir last summer. That was scary empty.