CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) – An update to the U.S. drought monitor report for western Massachusetts was released Thursday.
There’s both good news and bad news. The good news is that some areas that were in moderate drought last week have now improved to “abnormally dry” this week. These improvements were mainly north of the Mass. Pike in Hampshire and Franklin Counties.
The bad news was that areas south of the Mass. Pike in central and eastern Hampden County have now moved into moderate drought this week after being only “abnormally dry” last week.
Recent rain has been hit or miss and has left some areas needing more. For the month of August, so far, we’re doing okay. At Westover in Chicopee we’ve picked up 1.03″ of rain since the start of the month. That’s a surplus of 0.38″ over what we should normally have month-to-date.
But we do have a rainfall deficit when it comes to the rainfall for the year so far. We’ve measured 24.68″ at Westover in Chicopee since January 1st, but we should have 25.85″ by now. That’s a rainfall deficit of 1.17.”
That rainfall deficit alone is not that great, but recent dry weather in May, June and in some areas July has caused these short term drought conditions to develop.
