The summary
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The governor of New Jersey issued a drought warning on Wednesday.
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State officials said the state is experiencing some of the driest conditions in nearly 120 years, leading to an increase in wildfires.
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The extreme dry spell is part of a broader drought plaguing the Northeast.
New Jersey’s governor issued a drought warning on Wednesday and said the state could implement mandatory water restrictions if conditions worsen.
A record drought has led to the driest conditions New Jersey has had in nearly 120 years, leading to a staggering increase in wildfires, state officials said at a news conference.
The New Jersey Forest Fire Service has responded to 537 wildfires since early October, burning thousands of acres, Gov. Phil Murphy said. That’s 500 more fires than the same period last year, he said.
Murphy urged residents to take the drought warning seriously and voluntarily reduce water use.
“Each of us must do everything we can to save water,” he said.
Tim Eustace, executive director of the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission, said he believes the state did not go far enough and should have declared a drought emergency, which typically involves restrictions on nonessential outdoor water use.
“I have always been against using drinking water to water your lawns. It is an insane waste of resources,” Eustace said.
His commission supplies water to about a third of New Jersey, and its main reservoir, the Wanaque Reservoir, was at 45% capacity on Wednesday.
The Wanaque Reservoir in Ringwood, NJ, on Monday.
The Manasquan Reservoir, another large reservoir in the state, was at 51% of capacity, and the Passaic River – which supplies drinking water – at about 14% of normal levels, although that is still enough to meet demand , officials said.
New Jersey American Water, which serves about 2.9 million people in the state, issued a conservation notice to its customers on Wednesday. The company described the notice as “mandatory” to convey urgency but has no enforcement power against violators, said Mark McDonough, president of New Jersey American Water.
“We would like you to limit yourself if you can, but I don’t have the authority to issue tickets or go door to door and ask people if they are watering their lawns,” McDonough said. “We can have a huge impact if we focus on saving water for our customers.”
Murphy said the winter forecast predicts more dry weather, although the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s seasonal outlook predicted above-average temperatures with equal chances of above- or below-average precipitation.
The dry conditions plaguing New Jersey are part of a broader drought in the Northeast. In October, cities like Newark, New Jersey; Wilmington, Delaware; and Norfolk, Virginia, recorded no rain at all, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center, which collects precipitation data across the country. Philadelphia and Washington DC have set records for the number of consecutive days without measurable rainfall.
Overall, October was one of the driest months on record in the U.S., according to NOAA. Data from the US Drought Monitor shows that more than half of the continental US is experiencing some degree of drought, including 56% of the Northeast.
In New Jersey, rain is usually evenly distributed throughout the months, said state climatologist Dave Robinson. But some areas have had no measurable rainfall in 40 days, the first time since records began about 150 years ago.
“We’ve had longer droughts before, but in terms of how exceptional the dry weather has been, we haven’t seen anything like this,” Robinson said.
He said New Jersey often gets a dose of heavy rain in October from the remnants of hurricanes or tropical storms or from Nor’easters — low-pressure systems that develop in the mid-Atlantic Ocean.
This fall, “we were left out” of both, Robinson said. Instead, a ridge of high pressure has been in place over New Jersey and other parts of the Northeast for weeks.
“There is no great storm that will strike this ridge in the chest and destroy it. It was more of a slow, annoying process,” Robinson said. “There are some signs that the central part of the country, which has been quite dry, is becoming wetter. … It seems to be slowly shifting east.”
So far, November is the twelfth month in a row in New Jersey with above-average temperatures. A warmer atmosphere can both worsen droughts and increase the risk of extreme rainfall.
“With a more energetic, warmer climate system you can retain more moisture in the atmosphere. … If you can’t tap into that moisture source, you have warmer conditions that can worsen drying and lead to more droughts,” Robinson said. “The system has become more variable.”
Given New Jersey’s persistent dry weather since mid-August, ending the drought would require several months of at least average rainfall, if not significantly more, said Shawn LaTourette, the state’s environmental protection commissioner.
About half an inch of rain fell in some areas on Sunday, but Murphy said that was “not nearly enough.”
Firefighters respond to a wildfire in Evesham, NJ on November 6.
New Jersey last declared a drought crisis in March 2002 and lifted it in January 2003. The state’s last drought warning was in 2016 and it lasted more than half a year, LaTourette said.
Greg McLaughlin, administrator of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service’s forest and wildlife areas office, said that on a scale that measures the dryness of materials on the forest floor, conditions have reached 748 out of 800.
“These numbers have never been seen by the Forest Fire Service in our 118-year history,” McLaughlin said. “The impact of this drought on bushfires cannot be overstated.”
The Jennings Creek Wildfire, along the New York-New Jersey border, continued to burn Wednesday and was about 30% contained. At least 5,000 hectares have been burned in the two states. On Saturday, an 18-year-old New York Parks employee was killed by a falling tree while fighting a fire in New York’s Orange County.
“We are incredibly grateful for his service and for his willingness to protect the people of both New York and New Jersey from these deadly fires,” Murphy said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
