It has really been feast or famine, but also too much of a good thing as we track rainfall across New England this summer. Depends on where you live.
The stretch of intense heat combined with our highest sun angle of the year, has allowed for maximum evaporation lately. Soil moisture has decreased overall across some areas in the northeast over the last few weeks. Many of the days in a week’s time will bring in rain due to isolated thunderstorms. While one town gets 2 inches of rain, another gets zero.
Once a week we have had a good soaking rain, but it doesn’t seem to be enough. Boston came off a wet spring, with a slightly above normal rainfall for the month of June. And Boston in particular has had 0.91 inches of rain for the month of July, which is actually below the normal-to-this-date total of 1.55 inches.
So far we’re not in a drought category, but plants, flowers, and gardens are getting crispy. Lowell’s stats are much worse. In the month of June, they picked up 2.17 inches of rain, which is 2.2 inches below normal.
The exception is, of course, up in northern New England and specifically Vermont, where last week we saw 3-5 inches of rainfall in a short time. This led to flash flooding and major river flooding, almost to the date of last year’s devastating flood event.
So northern New England shouldn’t see the drought map worsen. But in southern New England, we may end up watching the “abnormally dry” conditions expand a bit as the latest drought monitor is issued on Thursday, which takes into account all the rain from Tuesday to Tuesday a week later.
