The Drought Continues, Even With All This Rain
BOSTON (CBS) - Hard to believe but we are still in a drought.
The U.S. Drought Monitor has all of southern New England in what they term a moderate to severe, short term drought.
Check: Current Conditions | Weather Map Center | Interactive Radar
This has been most evident in the river flow, which has been historically low for much of this spring due to the lack of a winter snowpack and four straight months of below normal rainfall to begin 2012.
The driest stretch occurred from February through mid-April, when we had about a 75-day stretch with just over 2 inches of precipitation.
This is normally the wettest stretch of the entire year, averaging more than 10 inches of rain, crucial to feeding our lawns and gardens and preparing them for the hot weather ahead.
Thankfully the weather pattern has shifted.
It all started on April 22-23 when Boston got its first drenching in months, rainfall totaled about 2.5 inches.
May has been downright dreary.
Other than a few sunny days over Mother's Day weekend, this May has felt a lot more like April normally does.
Rain has fallen on 9 of the first 14 days this month, amazing considering it only rained 6 days the entire month of April!
We are currently over a half-inch above normal for rain this month with more on the way.
A slow moving weather boundary will bring numerous showers and thunderstorms north and west of Boston through early Tuesday and then start to crawl eastward.
All of southern New England will be under the gun for scattered downpours later on Tuesday with the heaviest rainfall coming Tuesday night into early on Wednesday.
Conservative rainfall estimates for this timeframe would be about 1-2 inches, with higher amounts possible.
This might be somewhat of a tipping point as far as our drought status is concerned, perhaps dropping our level down from "severe" to "moderate" drought.
We're not out of the woods just yet, but certainly this eases concerns of a very dry and troublesome summer.
And, speaking of summer, most long range experts still believe we will be susceptible to periods of unsettled, wet weather.
The death of La Nina and the possible emergence of El Nino later this summer and into the fall, would most likely be just what the doctor ordered.
Most times conditions such as these mean abnormally wet periods here in the Northeast, good for drought, bad for summer vacations.
You can follow Terry on Twitter at @TerryWBZ.
