Drought warning lifted in Big Sandy region, other drought advisories continued (copy)
Due to recent rainfall, the Drought Monitoring Task Force (DMTF) has recommended de-escalating the drought warning advisory to a drought watch advisory in the Big Sandy drought evaluation region. The Big Sandy drought region contains Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, and Wise counties and the cities of Bristol and Norton.
The recent rain has prevented drought conditions from worsening, although severe drought continues in many parts of Virginia, including the Roanoke River drought evaluation region.
The New River region, which includes Bland, Carroll, Floyd, Giles, Grayson, Montgomery, Pulaski, and Wythe counties and the cities of Galax, and Radford, remains under drought warning advisories.
A drought emergency advisory exists for the Roanoke River region, including Bedford, Campbell, Charlotte, Franklin, Halifax, Henry, Mecklenburg, Patrick, Pittsylvania, and Roanoke counties and the cities of Danville, Martinsville, Roanoke, and Salem.
The DMTF considered the following information in its advisory recommendations:
• Streamflow improved in the eastern and western regions of the Commonwealth but remained much below normal in Central Virginia to include Roanoke and the upper portions of the James, Shenandoah, and Rappahannock river basins.
• Soil moisture in the top layers of soil have improved, but much drier-than-normal soils persist along the Blue Ridge Mountains and in south central Virginia.
• Groundwater levels showed small improvements in some eastern and western monitoring wells, however general levels continue to decline across Virginia consistent with normal seasonal patterns.
• Reservoir levels across the Commonwealth were all within normal ranges, except for Smith Mountain Lake and John Kerr Reservoir, which remain much below normal for this time of year.
• Precipitation over the past week was substantial ranging from less than 1 to more than 6 inches, with amounts generally increasing from west to east. Longer-term precipitation continues to show severe and expansive deficits, with the 180-day Standardized Precipitation Index blend observation showing large areas of severe and extreme dryness throughout central and southcentral Virginia. Except for the Richmond area where normal year-to-date precipitation amounts are present, the rest of the Commonwealth is experiencing deficits ranging from 5.3 inches in Norfolk to 9.4 inches in Danville.
Agricultural producers reported general dry conditions but noted some improvement in pasture conditions throughout the state due to the widespread rains.
The seven-day forecast calls for slightly above average temperatures with predicted rainfall totals of 0.25 to 0.75 inches for the Roanoke and Shenandoah Basins and greater than one inch over the remainder of the state. The DMTF will meet again on Aug. 4.
Additional information on the current drought status is available on the DEQ drought webpage and Drought Dashboard, which includes interactive data on stream gages, groundwater wells, soil moisture, and precipitation.
