Map shows where severe drought is occurring in Massachusetts for the first time in two years

BOSTON – For the first time in more than two years, a fairly significant portion of Massachusetts is now considered to be in a severe drought.

Second driest autumn ever recorded in Boston

Over the past seven days, the moderate drought region has doubled from 35% to 70%, and now 14% of Massachusetts, including parts of Suffolk, Norfolk, Middlesex and Essex counties, has reached severe drought levels.

This is no surprise given the extremely dry weather pattern of late. For the month of October, Boston received less than an inch of water, almost two inches below average.

Combine that with a very dry September and that leaves most of the region five to six inches below the average rainfall of the past two months.

This is really thin air. Two months after the meteorological fall, Boston is officially the second driest on record and Worcester is in first place.

Little rain is forecast

There will be no immediate pattern change. A very weak cold front will pass through Friday morning, bringing only a few sprinkles, probably nothing even measurable across most of southern New England. The weekend will be much cooler, but bone dry.

More of the same will follow next week. We have a chance of another light rain shower from Monday night into Tuesday, but there is no significant rain or storm in the forecast in the near future.

This is still considered a short-term drought and fortunately it comes at a time of year when water supplies are not as critical. The growing season is over, so the impact on farmers will be minimal for now.

Water shortages are also not a top-of-mind issue this time of year as most people have stopped using irrigation. If you have planted grass seed in the past few weeks, be sure to water these areas for the time being. Be sure to keep the soil around newly planted shrubs moist to ensure good root growth and protection.

How a drought affects winter weather

Finally, something I mentioned in an earlier blog that I think bears repeating. Looking through Boston’s history, a dry fall often has lasting effects on the following winter. In fact, the data shows that the pattern continues in almost all cases.

If we take the ten driest fall seasons on record in Boston, eight of them had below-average snowfall that winter. In many cases it was well below average. Boston averages about 48 inches of snow per season…the average for those 10 winters was about 11 inches of snow.

It’s worth noting that most of the data set is old, from the early and mid-20th century, and the state of our planet and atmosphere is clearly very different now than it was then. If November becomes a wet month, that could also reverse winter.