DAYTON — Happy Thursday, everyone! Weather Specialist Nick Dunn here and wow it sure was nice to wake up to wet grounds this morning after rain fell overnight! Totals for most ranged from 0.10″ to 0.50″, and while that is not a ton, it certainly is beneficial.
The latest drought monitor released at 8:30 AM this morning shows the entire Miami Valley is now considered Abnormally Dry. This is not an official drought, but a pre-cursor to drought conditions. Last week, just 14% of the Miami Valley was in that designation.
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When we look at the state of Ohio, we do find some pockets of Moderate Drought not far from the Miami Valley. Last week, just 1.9% of Ohio was officially in drought. Now, that number is climbed to 29.1%, marking a big increase from last Thursday.
If conditions continue to stay drier than normal and temperatures warm up again, we could see further degradation in the drought conditions. The latest trends into mid-September show drier than normal conditions are expected. This will allow for streams and rivers to run lower than normal and trees to start showing some additional color.
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Fall is one of our drier times here in the Miami Valley, and since we ended Summer dry there can also be increased risk for combine and field fires as we progress further into Fall. You may recall last year we had open burn bans in place during the late Summer. So far, that has not happened. However, a yearly burn ban does kick in for October and November in the State of Ohio.