![]() ![]() “What we really are hoping for is a wet fall followed by a very snowy winter to really recharge the aquifers and the groundwater.” “I think we’re probably going to be in this for a while and it’s going to take a lot,” said Ted Diers, assistant director of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services water division. Rao and other water experts in New England expect the current drought to last for several more months. “But it could just be the beginning of a longer trend.” “We hope this is maybe one period of peaking of drought and we get back to many more years of normal precipitation,” she said. Massachusetts experienced droughts in 2016, 2017, 2020, 20, which is very likely due to climate change, said Vandana Rao, director of water policy in Massachusetts. New England has experienced severe summer droughts before, but experts say it is unusual to have droughts in fairly quick succession since 2016. But, he said, the dry weather can be punctuated by extreme rainfall events since a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture - when conditions are conducive to rainfall, there’s more of it in short bursts. ![]() The continuing trend toward drier summers in the Northeast can certainly be attributed to the impact of climate change, since warmer temperatures lead to greater evaporation and drying of soils, climate scientist Michael Mann said. About 50 dry wells have been reported to the state since 2021, according to the state’s dry well survey. In Auburn, Maine, local firefighters helped a dairy farmer fill a water tank for his cows when his well went too low in late July and temperatures hit 90. Officials in Maine said drought conditions really began there in 2020, with occasional improvements in areas since. The north end of the Hoppin Hill Reservoir in Massachusetts is dry, forcing local water restrictions. Rhode Island’s governor issued a statewide drought advisory Tuesday with recommendations to reduce water use. Providence, Rhode Island had less than half an inch of rainfall in the third driest July on record, and Boston had six-tenths of an inch in the fourth driest July on record, according to the National Weather Service office in Norton, Massachusetts. Fire departments are combatting more brush fires and crops are growing poorly. ![]() Water supplies are low or dry, and many communities are restricting nonessential outdoor water use. ![]()
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