NORFOLK, Va. — You’ve heard our whole team talking about the unprecedented stretch of dry weather we just experienced in Hampton Roads. We went 36 days without measurable rainfall, only to receive 0.02 inches of rain overnight on Thursday. 36 days without measurable rain means we have set the longest streak on record.
Check out the drought monitor report from 30 days ago: there was no notable drought.
Fast forward to now, moderate drought conditions cover the majority of our area. But it could be so much worse if it were a different time of the year.
That's because droughts in warmer months are exponentially worse than droughts during the cooler season. Here’s why.
A stretch of 36 days without rain in the summer would drive worse drought conditions because hotter daily temperatures produce more evapotranspiration. A combination of evaporation of moisture from the ground plus transpiration of moisture into the atmosphere from plants.
Cooler daily temperatures like we see this time of the year combined with an end to the growing season leads to much lower levels of moisture loss from the ground and plants.
So even though we could certainly use the rain our environment can handle the drought conditions much better than if it played out a few months ago during the summer.