Drought Early Warning Update for the Northeast

Northeast Drought Early Warning Update

December 13, 2022

Drought Early Warning Update for the

Northeast

Groundwater improvements will have to wait until spring for areas with frozen soils and snow cover.

Massachusetts will present an overview of their Drought Decision Support Dashboard on December 15 as a part of the NRCC Monthly webinar. Register here.

Key Points

Severe Drought (D2) persisted for communities north of Boston as of the December 6, 2022 U.S. Drought Monitor.

Moderate Drought (D1) and Abnormally Dry (D0) conditions remained for portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, the counties just north of New York City and for all of Long Island.

Since groundwater recharge tends to slow in winter, areas with below normal groundwater levels are expected to show little improvement through winter.

If the winter snowpack is below normal, there may also be concerns around recharge and drought in spring 2023.

Figure 1: Departure from normal precipitation (inches) for Portland Area, ME (blue), Concord Area, NH (black), Boston Area, MA (green), Providence Area, RI (orange), Bridgeport Area, CT (purple), Islip Area, NY (red), and Rochester Area, NY (yellow). Source: ACIS.

The rest of this drought update, including current conditions, outlooks, and impacts, is available online.

Access the Full Drought Update

This Drought Early Warning Update is issued in partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to communicate concern for drought expansion and intensification within the Northeast U.S. based on recent conditions and the forecasts and outlooks. NIDIS and its partners will issue future Drought Early Warning Updates as conditions evolve.

This covers the following states in the Northeast U.S.: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York.

For more details, see the Northeast Drought Early Warning System Dashboard.

Additional Resources

Northeast DEWS Dashboard: https://nedews.nrcc.cornell.edu/
NOAA Regional Climate Services: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/regional
Your local National Weather Service office: https://www.weather.gov/srh/nwsoffices
NOAA Regional Climate Services Monthly Webinar Series (next webinar is December 15): https://www.nrcc.cornell.edu/workshops/webinars/2022/11/index.html
USDA Northeast Climate Hub: https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/northeast/drought-map
USGS/New England and New York Water Science Centers: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/new-england-water and https://www.usgs.gov/centers/ny-water.
Sign up for the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network listserv

Prepared By

Sylvia Reeves

NOAA/National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS)

Samantha Borisoff, Jessica Spaccio, Keith Eggleston, Art DeGaetano

Northeast Regional Climate Center

Ellen Mecray

Regional Climate Services Director, Eastern Region, NOAA

David Hollinger

USDA Climate Hubs

Gardner Bent

USGS/New England Water Science Center

In partnership with National Weather Service Offices of the Northeast and State Climate Offices of the Northeast.

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