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NYC-area drought drags on — but hopefully not for much longer
By
Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky
Published Oct 25, 2022
Modified Oct 25, 2022
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By
Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky
Published Oct 25, 2022
Modified Oct 25, 2022
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There’s water, water everywhere — but not enough to get us out of a drought, apparently.
Parts of New York and New Jersey are abnormally arid for this time of year, government data shows — even after some intense rain. It’s a continuation of the epic drought the area witnessed over the summer.
Weekly data from the National Drought Monitoring Center showed that parts of North Jersey and Suffolk, Rockland, and Westchester counties remained in a moderate drought as of last Thursday. The five boroughs, Newark, and Hoboken, meanwhile, are “abnormally dry,” a step down from their neighbors on the dryness scale. (One exception is the northern half of Staten Island, which is appropriately moist.)
At those levels, farmers and gardeners may need to rely more on irrigation, and there’s a greater risk of wildfires, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) catchily named National Integrated Drought Information System.
All told, about 16% of the Northeast is in some state of drought, according to data from the Drought Monitoring Center. That’s way less than the dry conditions this summer, which blanketed close to 60% of the region. Even toward the end of September, 96% of New Jersey remained under-hydrated.
The widespread drought put the region at risk for wildfires and led New Jersey officials to issue a drought watch for the first time in years.
Northeast drought extent as of Oct. 18, 2022
Light yellow indicates abnormally dry conditions, orange areas of the map are in moderate drought and dark orange areas are in severe drought.
Map: Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky for Gothamist Source: U.S. Drought Monitor
“This drought has really stuck around,” said Brad Pugh, a forecaster with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center who helped calculate the drought data based on precipitation levels, stream gauge data and reports from local officials.
Pugh added that in the Northeast, summertime drought normally abates as temperatures drop in the autumn, allowing more rainfall to seep into the soil rather than evaporate away. The fall is also the most active phase of the Atlantic hurricane season.
He blamed this year’s lingering dryness on a “mean frontal boundary,” a division between two air masses that dumped lots of rain just south of New York and New Jersey — while leaving us high and dry earlier this summer. As a result, parts of New York and New Jersey are still a few inches short on precipitation for this time of year.
“It had a very unusual precipitation pattern where it was dry in the Northeast but wet across the mid-Atlantic states,” he explained.
These maps show the extent of drought in the Northeastern United States. In August 2022 (left), the drought covered much of New Jersey and parts of New York. By October (right), it covered only a third of New Jersey and 16% of New York.
National Drought Monitoring Center
The type of rain we receive also makes a difference, Pugh said. Rain that falls over hours or days stands a better chance of soaking into the soil — relative to quick, intense cloudbursts, which dump so much moisture at one time that most of it runs off.
New York’s drought is small, dry potatoes compared to the West Coast and central U.S., where wide swaths of land are marked as being in “extreme drought” or “exceptional drought” — the two highest levels in the Drought Monitoring Center’s rubric. Climate change has driven droughts to new extremes, according to the United States Geological Survey. The dry spells have become longer lasting and more intense in recent years.
The good news is that the drought is expected to improve or abate altogether on Long Island, in New York City, and in much of New Jersey, according to the national data. But dry conditions may persist in the Hudson Valley, North Jersey, and parts of Connecticut.
Tagged
new york city
environment
new jersey
drought
Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky
Jaclyn is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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