The summer was excruciatingly dry for us here across central Virginia, with many places picking up a mere six inches of rain over the entire season. We were desperately hoping for rain and then at the end of September, the skies opened up.

There wasn't just one, but two significant rainfall events here across central Virginia. Widespread rainfall totals between four and six inches were recorded in a five day period. This did put quite a dent in our drought concerns, but we're not completely out of the woods yet. Our rainfall deficit for the year still stands at a little more than seven inches at McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia. Still, when looking at the drought monitor product released weekly by NOAA, huge changes can be seen. According to the drought monitor, last week, 28% of the state was experiencing severe drought conditions, with many of those areas right here near Charlottesville. This week, that number has been slashed to only 0.9% of the state experiencing severe drought. Moderate drought is now confined to about 7% of the state, compared to nearly 50% of the state last week.

The bottom line is, although we have seen some relief from the drought in the short term, it won't take too many weeks of dry weather to cause more problems. October is historically a dry month for us, so hopefully that won't be the case this year and we can keep the beneficial rain coming!

If you have any questions about our rainfall numbers or drought questions, feel free to post it in the comments section. I'll answer any questions you may have!

Happy weekend,

Brantley