DAYTON — Rather than providing relief, recent weather has worsened drought conditions in the Miami Valley.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 5, All of the Miami Valley is now in some form of drought conditions, Dunn said.
The past 7 days have brought minimal rain and generally above-average temperatures. These two ingredients on top of relatively dry grounds already accelerate worsening drought conditions.
While moderate drought covers 100% of the Miami Valley, severe drought conditions grew from around 13% last week to around 48% this week.
The rain some of us got last Friday was not enough to make any big improvements.
Looking at the state of Ohio, over three-quarters of the state is now in at least some form of drought condition.
This is an increase of over 10% from last week, which goes to show what another week of below-normal rain and warm weather can do. Nearly one-quarter of Ohio is in at least Extreme Drought conditions
Soil moisture is quite dry as of right now, with many areas running 1-2″+ below normal in the last 30 days to go along with 30% or less of normal rainfall in the same period.
As dry and warm weather remains in the forecast, no improvement is expected with the drought. We will have to monitor for at least elevated fire danger concerns with breezy conditions over the next couple of days.
Relative humidity levels will not be quite low enough for high danger or a Red Flag Warning, but given dry grounds and breezy conditions it will be worth monitoring.
News Center 7 will continue to update this story.
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