Although we are not seeing the severe drought situation that has plagued parts of the Western U.S. conditions have been dry in this part of New York State.
According to Jennifer Spaccio, a climatologist at the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, the National Weather Service gauge at the airport shows Rochester saw less than an inch of rain in June.
Spaccio says that puts us in the category of what's called 'abnormally dry.' According to a federal classification system, that’s one step away from ‘moderate drought.’
“Most of the state is not quite in a drought yet but we are in abnormally dry conditions, so that means we’re not seeing any water shortages, anything like that yet, but we’re definitely noticing this short term dryness. The ground is very dry, there’s some agricultural impacts, but no water restrictions or anything like that yet,” Spaccio told WXXI News.
She says one of the problems exacerbating the problem is the fact there was little snow this past winter.
“That definitely does add to the conditions because it’s not just how much rain we get but what those antecedent soil conditions are. So because we didn’t have a lot of snowpack in the winter to melt into the spring, we didn’t have the extra moisture to help us out.”
Spaccio says with the traditional heat of July, it could make the dry conditions worsen.
