Drought coming?

dogg57

Piney
Jan 22, 2007
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Southern NJ
southjerseyphotos.com
By SARAH WATSON |
After several weeks of a hot dry spring, the weather turned cooler and a little rainy. But that still isn’t enough to release South Jersey and the rest of the state from the grips of an ongoing short-term drought.
The National Drought Monitor’s most recent listing, released Thursday morning, still lists all of New Jersey as being in a moderate short-term drought. Areas as close as Delaware and Long Island, NY, are listed as being in a severe drought.

Since January 1, 10.02 inches of rain have fallen at Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township. That is 4.10 inches below normal for the year, according to the National Weather Service.
April started out as extremely dry, but enough rain fell for the month to statistically be .70 inches below normal, according to the weather service.
Fire danger had listed been extreme in the Pinelands, but as spring plant growth has increase, that danger has since subsided somewhat, with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service listing South Jersey as having moderate fire danger as of Monday.
 

Boyd

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Jul 31, 2004
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Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
There was definitely some damage on my land, but it only affected some of the blossoms, unlike 2010 when all of my upland laurels were wiped out. I see a lot of low shubby-type plants with parially withered leaves, but it's not too bad. The impact should be a little more clear as the unaffected plants start getting bigger leaves.

Lowlands were not affected. I guess the microclimate kept temperatures just a few degrees higher.
 

Boyd

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Jul 31, 2004
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Finally getting a nice soaking here today. Just a steady light rain most of the day that didn't even come to 1/2" until about an hour ago when it started raining cats and dogs. I am actually watching the numbers move on the rain gauge - it's up to about 1.5" now and almost 1/10" has fallen as I write this.

Radar looks like it will soon taper off, but this is the most rain we've had here in at least a month.
 

dogg57

Piney
Jan 22, 2007
2,912
375
Southern NJ
southjerseyphotos.com
Finally getting a nice soaking here today. Just a steady light rain most of the day that didn't even come to 1/2" until about an hour ago when it started raining cats and dogs. I am actually watching the numbers move on the rain gauge - it's up to about 1.5" now and almost 1/10" has fallen as I write this.

Radar looks like it will soon taper off, but this is the most rain we've had here in at least a month.
Glad you got some rain Boyd.
 

piker56

Explorer
Jan 13, 2006
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Winslow
The lake near me is about 4 feet deep for half then drops off to about 15 feet. In a serious drought, the 4 foot section has completely dried up. Hasn't happened this year yet, so I've see worse. Hopefully we will begin to get some steady rainy days soon.
Greg
 

Boyd

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Jul 31, 2004
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Cooler days are coming... I hope.:)

There was still a lot of damage in Mays Landing yesterday. The Wawa on Rt 50 was running on a generator in the parking lot. Crews were replacing broken utility poles just North of the Rt 322 intersection on Rt 50. It is going to take awhile to cut up and haul away all the downed trees. But I guess there will be a lot of firewood available this year. :)
 

Boyd

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Jul 31, 2004
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A picture is worth a thousand words... here are the rainfall totals from yesterday :)


rain0707.jpg
 
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