Sections Of New Jersey Still Under Moderate Drought Conditions

October 20, 2022

As the weather turns colder and the growing season ends most may not notice that sections of New Jersey are still under moderate drought conditions. Even with recent rains improving some of the drought conditions, in northern New Jersey many streams are not flowing at the same rate as this time last year. Photos taken below are of the Double Kill near the Wawayanda Iron Furnace at Wawayanda State Park this past week showing a dry stream bed. At the same time last year, the stream was flowing with high levels of water.

The US Drought Monitor says:

Northeast

A couple of low pressure systems with trailing frontal boundaries resulted in another round of improvements to long-term drought conditions across New England and the Mid-Atlantic. Widespread 1 to 2 inch rainfall surpluses were observed across New England, with more than 4 inch surpluses in central and western Maine. Given the recent beneficial rainfall in many of these same areas, widespread 1-category improvements to the drought depiction were warranted. Some areas in western New York and south-central Pennsylvania have seen deficits creep up to between 1 and 3 inches over the past 30 days. So these areas will need to be watched in the coming weeks.”

The U.S. Drought Monitor is a map released every Thursday, showing parts of the U.S. that are in drought. The map uses five classifications: abnormally dry (D0), showing areas that may be going into or are coming out of drought, and four levels of drought: moderate (D1), severe (D2), extreme (D3) and exceptional (D4).

The U.S. Drought Monitor is jointly produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Map courtesy of NDMC.