Drought levels largely unchanged despite heavy rains
Edd Cote
After a spring and summer of dry conditions, Jeff Crowley filled the feeder pond at his Wachusett Mountain Ski Area with water from Fitchburg, despite a 50-percent increase in rates.
For the first time in more than two months, part of Massachusetts is wet enough to no longer be considered in a drought or be "abnormally dry," federal drought observers said Thursday.
Nantucket, which sits above a natural aquifer created by receding glaciers more than 10,000 years ago, is now appropriately hydrated for the first time since mid-August, the U.S. Drought Monitor said. However, the island accounts for just 0.70 percent of the state's area.
For the rest of Massachusetts, the status of the widespread drought was essentially unchanged in the Monitor's Thursday update, despite torrential rain that flooded some parts of the state late last week.
According to the monitor, 37.82 percent of Massachusetts is under an "extreme drought" -- down from 37.83 percent last week -- 47.72 percent is in a "severe drought" and the rest of the state, except for Nantucket, is either experiencing a "moderate drought" or is "abnormally dry."
Some parts of the state last week saw the most significant rain in a number of years. In Worcester roadways flooded Friday as drainage systems struggled to keep up with torrential downpours that totaled 4.06 inches of rain -- the most rainfall in one day since 2008, according to WBZ-TV meteorologist Eric Fisher.
And with more than an inch of rain falling Friday in Boston, October will end as the first month with above average rainfall amounts in the city since February, Fisher said.
Though the rainfall helped put a dent in the drought, the Monitor said its assessment of the drought's status did not change due to the long-term harm the drought has already inflicted on the environment.
"Improvements in areas of Massachusetts that received rainfall this week were held status quo in response to lingering, longer-term, hydrologic impacts," David Simeral of the Western Regional Climate Center.
More rain could be on the way in the coming days, with Fisher reporting "high odds" of one to three inches of rainfall between Thursday and Saturday.
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