Good Thursday afternoon, everyone! Meteorologist Nick Dunn here with you to show you the latest on our drought here in the Miami Valley. The calendar shows we are moving closer to Winter, but the lack of rainfall from the Summer has carried over.
The drought remains intense from Winchester to Wapakoneta as Severe and Extreme Drought conditions are still showing in the latest update today. Over the past month, those further south have seen some solid improvements due to consistent rainfall that has been above average.
Looking at the statistics we see big improvements from one month ago to now in every category, with the exception of Extreme Drought. Extreme Drought has been around for 5 consecutive weeks across our far northern counties.
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You can see across the northern counties where we see a sharp gradient between Extreme Drought (Red) and Abnormally Dry (Yellow) conditions. This alone shows where the cutoff of the rainfall over the last 30-45 days has either largely been enough for some or nowhere near enough in other spots to make improvements.
As we work south and east towards I-70, you find conditions are considered to no longer be in any form of drought. Further south of I-70, Abnormally Dry conditions no longer persist as rainfall has been sufficient of late to replenish soil moisture levels.
This map definitely shows the drastic differences in rainfall since early October. Some parts of the Miami Valley are well above normal, while others are well below normal. As we have discussed previously, precipitation needs to run above normal for several weeks in a row to see changes.
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Looking at the 8-14 Day Outlook we find odds of precipitation being near normal (equal chances of below or above normal) to slightly leaning towards above average across Ohio. We have some precipitation on the way tomorrow and again Sunday into Monday. Trends will be watched for further into next week and beyond!
