PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Whichever child has been singing “Rain Rain Go Away” is officially advised to take a break, as it’s been working a little too well in Virginia.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, in coordination with the Virginia Drought Monitoring Task Force, has expanded the drought watch advisory to include 38 counties.
Much of the Eastern and Southeastern shore is now under a drought advisory, which is intended to help prepare for potential droughts.
The following Hampton Roads areas were included in the watch:
- Accomack County
- Northampton County
- Gloucester County
- Chesapeake
- Isle of Wight County
- Norfolk
- Portsmouth
- Suffolk
- Virginia Beach
- Hampton
- James City
- Newport News
- New Kent
- York counties
Groundwater levels in most of the Commonwealth are also considered low.
Don’t let this mornings damp leaves fool you. As drought conditions worsen in parts of Virginia, DEQ and the Virginia Forestry Department are bringing awareness to wildfire risks water conservation.
“A drought watch is more or less an awareness that drought conditions exist and that if there is no further sufficient precipitation gained in the next few weeks, it may it may get drier and that might precipitate a need to go to a warning status,” said Weedon Cloe, Virginia DEQ manager of the officer of water supply.
Virginia uses four indicators to evaluate drought severity. Weedon said precipitation is clearly down, streamflows are fine, reservoir storage is adequate and they are closely watching groundwater levels.
“In Southeast Virginia, we have two monitoring wells that we rely on,” Cloe said.
“One of them was about 50%, and the other one was at about 17%, so we have a little bit lower ground water values that we are looking at.”
The Forestry Department is also looking at that.
“Yes, we were right in the middle of our fall fire season that runs from Oct. 15 through Nov. 30,” Forestry Department Communications Specialist Cory Swift said.
The lack of rain combined lower humidity and more windy days make wildfires more likely to start and spread quickly.
“The dead leaves that are falling off the trees, foliage, plants, they’re all dried up. And that means that they will combust more readily,” Swift said.
Before you burn anything check with your city or county about restrictions or permits needed. When camping douse a fire until its cool to the touch before walking away.
All Virginians are encouraged to conserve water by fixing leaks, taking shorter showers and and turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth.
“Those are things that will save a little bit of water but collectively saves a lot,” Cloe said.
At this point officials are not as worried going into the cooler months with a drought as they would be headed into say, May.
Though, Cloe said, a good Nor’easter would be welcome right about now, at least in terms of the rain.