Amid sweltering temperature and excessive heat, the drought has worsened across New England. The latest drought map has added more of Northern New England under ‘severe’ drought conditions.
The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln polls rain data and soil moisture content Tuesday to Tuesday, then publishes findings on Thursdays.
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This accounts for the brutal stretch of heat from late-July, and the third driest July on record.
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While conditions remained mostly unchanged across Vermont, coastal Maine is now in severe drought. And severe drought has expended further into western Worcester County, Mass. and south across Barnstable county.
For the first time since the fall of 2020, 57% of Massachusetts is under severe drought.
We’re likely still in the early phases of this growing dry spell, following relatively similar to the summer of 2016.
Year-to-date, Boston is running 8.7 inches below average for rainfall. Worcester is slightly more than two inches below yearly rainfall averages. Portland, Maine has followed similar trends to Boston, and has had roughly 20 inches of rain. That’s 7.5 inches below average rain for the year. The anomalously hot July didn’t help either. Boston tied for its fourth hottest July on record. Portland, Maine tied for its second hottest. Concord, N.H. also broke into the top 10 warmest Julys.
