Despite rounds of heavy rain and snow across Massachusetts over the last several weeks, much of the state remains in a critical drought and the Cape and islands are now experiencing a mild drought, state officials said Friday.
Though the recent precipitation has been a step in the right direction, it simply hasn’t been enough as streamflows and groundwater levels continue to be extremely low, according to officials. Boston is now 6 inches below normal in terms of rainfall (from Sept. 1 to date) — having gained about 1½ inches compared to where we were last month. The city saw about average rainfall in November, tallying 3.36 inches, just short of the 3.66 inches the city normally sees.
The last four months have been exceptionally dry throughout New England due to the below-average precipitation. Rainfall deficits reached 8 to 10 inches in some spots, including Western Mass. The state had its second driest fall on record while Maine and Connecticut experienced their driest ever.
Cape Cod and the islands were the last to slip into drought status and are now seeing a 3- to 5-inch deficit, according to the latest state data.
There are a handful of factors that go into the drought monitoring process, such as precipitation, streamflow and groundwater levels, fire danger risk, and what we call “evapotranspiration” — how temperature and precipitation interacts. And from August to November, higher-than-average temperatures paired with below-average precipitation led to strong evaporation at the surface, which was a bad combination for drought.
There has been some progress against the drought as three systems passed through the region over the past three weeks. Many areas from Worcester to Boston have seen over 3 inches of precipitation in that span, with between 2 and 3 inches west of Worcester.
It’s going to take persistent storms to crawl out of the drought, but the weather pattern looks promising. Our current active weather pattern will bring another clipper system through the region this weekend and more rain is on tap for the first half of next week. Both snow and rainstorms will be beneficial as snowmelt will allow water to seep freely into the ground rather than running off.
The recent rain and snow has been tremendous at stifling wildfire activity across the region — the wildland fire risk has been significantly lowered.
The rest of New England is experiencing abnormally dry to severe drought conditions, with most of Northern New England under a moderate drought.
Ken Mahan can be reached at ken.mahan@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @kenmahantheweatherman.