It's been quite dry

Happy Thursday! I hope you are enjoying the nice, slightly less humid weather today.

For many of you in New England, you may be thinking to yourself, when was the last time it rained? It's been abnormally dry as of late, and your lawn is probably feeling the ripple effects of it. Here's a photo of the grass outside my house this morning.

The grass feeling the effects of the dryness

In a post on June 9, (link here) I speculated about the possibility of parts of the region heading into drought-like conditions, given the lack of rain we had been seeing and the lack of rain in the forecast. Well, as of today, parts of New England officially are in a moderate drought.

Northeast Drought Monitor (National Drought Mitigation Center)

Any areas where you see that tan color on the above map indicates a moderate drought, while those areas that are yellow are abnormally dry. Here is a map that shows just how dry it has been.

Precipitation rankings for the past month (Southeast Regional Climate Center)

What the above map shows is rankings of precipitation data for the past month. So, the above numbers compare precipitation from May 24 to June 24 this year to precipitation for that period in all other years. All those brown numbers indicate extremely dry conditions for the past month, and plenty of stations in Maine are having their driest May 24 to June 24 on record.

You're probably all thinking, when will it rain next? Well, we have a good shot this weekend. Earlier today, I took a photo of some nice cirrus clouds outside my house. These high, wispy clouds often indicate that a pattern shift is coming within the next 48 hours, so that's a good sign for seeing some precipitation soon.

Cirrus clouds this morning

And looking at the forecast models, I like the rain chances for Saturday afternoon. Here's a look at the NAM for 2 p.m. on Saturday, showing a low pressure system that has moved into the region bringing with it some showers.

2 p.m. Saturday NAM (Tropical Tidbits)

While I do think we'll see some rain this Saturday, I don't think it will be anything that significant, and it certainly won't provide any major relief to the drought that parts of New England have now entered. Let's hope for some more rain next week!

Lastly, I have decided that moving forward I will not be posting daily. In the past, while attempting to post daily I felt like there were times when I simply write something for the sake of making a blog post. By not posting daily, I'll be able to put more thought into each post, and all of the topics should have some relevance.