‘Moderate Drought’ Declared for Seacoast of NH, ME, MA

The entire Seacoast region is considered to be in a moderate drought, but the hurricane season could bring relief.

That relief, however, isn't in the immediate future as the National Weather Service's 6-10 day precipitation outlook calls for below normal precipitation in most of New England. Meteorologist John Palmer at the NWS office in Gray, Maine, expects temperatures in the 90s during the upcoming week.

A dry spring has led to the declaration of a drought condition by the U.S. Drought Monitor in its latest weekly statement. The condition is more widespread than it was during the summer of 2021 and includes most of Massachusetts, central and southern New Hampshire, and southern Maine.

"A moderate drought is essentially conditions that could be created like crop damage, maybe an increased fire risk, fallen steam and reservoir levels and localized minor water shortages," meteorologist John Palmer at the National Weather Service office in Gray, Maine, told Seacoast Current.

Salisbury is the only Seacoast community to implement water restrictions with a ban on non-essential water use issued in May. The ban includes washing cars by residents at their homes, the washing of houses, driveways, and sidewalks, and the filling of swimming pools.

A year ago, heavy rain brought several inches of rain to the Seacoast including a month's worth of rain one day on July 9 from the remnants from Hurricane Elsa. The tropics have been quiet so far, but Palmer said the hurricane season has yet to reach its peak.

"We see more tropical storms in the fall. We're in the early stages of tropical storm season. Once we head into August and September, you're going to see the tropics start firing up. We could see a lot of tropical storms coming down the Atlantic pipe. I can't say for certain how many will make it up here," Palmer said.

At the beginning of the summer, the National Hurricane Center predicted 14-21 named storms for the season with 6-10 growing into hurricanes. 3-6 will be considered "major" hurricanes.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH