Every Thursday, we await for the next Drought Monitor to be released at 8:30 a.m. from the National Drought Mitigation Center. This time around, it was not good news for everyone who was looking for an improvement. There’s no doubt that Tuesday’s wash-out helped with the ongoing drought.
We certainly did need the rain that soaked our area Tuesday & early Wednesday, however the data used in determining whether a certain area is included or not included in a drought stops the Tuesday morning before the drought monitor is released. Therefore, the precipitation we saw on Tuesday and Wednesday was not included in this week’s update.
With that being said, this week’s drought monitor highlights more area that is now included in extreme drought. In other words, the area included in extreme drought has now expanded 13% for the state of Massachusetts and 44.5% for the state of Connecticut from last week to this week’s drought monitor. As for severe drought, the area included has now expanded to include Bangor in Maine. The area for severe drought for the state of Maine expanded by 25.6% from last week to this week.
As for the forecast, the rest of the work week remains dry and mild, which is not good in terms of the rainfall deficit that continues to deepen. The next chance for precipitation is Saturday afternoon for Maine, while Sunday is the best day for widespread precipitation as a system strengthens over the Midwest and brings rain to start as it slides into western New England before the rain changes over to snow in far northern New England and especially in higher elevations.
We do turn colder after the system exits the area for Monday afternoon with highs struggling to make it out of the lower 40s, a noticeable contrast in Saturday’s expected high temperature near 60 degrees. The travel forecast in the days leading to Thanksgiving remain dry, but cool with highs into the 40s, however, if you are travelling around New England on Thanksgiving Day, there’s still a threat for rain south and snowflakes north. As always, we will have continued updates as we get closer to the holiday.
