Yes, there is still a drought, and it most likely will last until spring.
Once the ground freezes, it cannot absorb more water, so the water table cannot be replenished until it thaws months later. With this historically dry summer, experts are afraid New Hampshire’s drought will hold until then, at least.
“The situation is that most of New Hampshire is still in moderate or severe drought,” said Jim Martin, public information officer at the state Department of Environmental Services. “We anticipate that we will be going into the winter in a drought situation in more of the state.”
According to an early-November U.S. Drought Monitor map, most of Cheshire and Hillsborough Counties are experiencing severe drought, with southern towns like Mason in an extreme drought.
The region has gotten rain and even a bit of snow lately, including in the past couple of days, but as of mid-month, Martin said, the state is still at a deficit compared to previous years. October saw more precipitation than usual, but not enough to make up for the dry summer.
“We did get a couple of big storms, so that was nice,” he said. “But even though we had a positive month of October, it goes to show we’ve been very behind for year-to-date.”
Towns throughout New Hampshire range from six inches to seven-and-one-half inches behind the normal for the past 180 days, and between eight and 14 inches behind for the year so far up to that date.
Nicole MacStay, assistant town administrator for the town of Peterborough, said there simply has not been much change in the water level.
“We get bits of rain here and there but it hasn’t been the sustained, restorative rain we’ve been looking for,” she said.
George Hamilton of the UNH Cooperative Extension Education Center agreed: “I’d love to see a nice two-day rain.”
Peterborough issued an outdoor water use ban in August that will remain in place through the winter.
“We’re requesting everyone remain mindful of their consumption through the winter,” MacStay said.
Martin noted that it is easy to forget to monitor even indoor use during cooler months.
“Outdoor watering season is past,” he said. “But people really need to watch consumption during their daily lives, and we expect wells will keep going dry.”
In the fall, there was concern over apple and other crop yields being hurt by the conditions. This time of year, it is holiday plants.
Mary Brown of Hill Top Farm in Hancock, who sells cut-your-own Christmas trees, said they did not plant any new trees this year, and that the existing ones survived.
“We don’t have a watering system, so it’s all Mother Nature,” Brown said. “Even though we had a drought and dry grass all around the trees we managed to get enough water just when they were starting to wilt, even the big ones’ leaves started to turn up, but they made it.”
Hamilton said that for most crops, all there is to do is wait and see.
“We’re hoping come spring we have the water sources we can irrigate from,” he said.
Spring crop yields will b impacted by the weather, but they are not the only negative consequence of a drought. Despite recent precipitation, fire danger remains high.
According to the AccuWeather forecast, there is some more precipitation on its way this weekend, but not likely enough to curb the drought in time.
Accuweather projects nightly temperatures consistently below freezing to last unbroken from now through the winter, meaning the ground will freeze imminently and the drought will last, unless we get some “sustained, restorative rain,” and fast.
Brandon Latham can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 228 or blatham@ledgertranscript.com. He is also on Twitter @blathamMLT.