The Northern Virginia Drought

The drought started in the spring of 1997 and it is now 1999. Oddly enough our rainfall for 1998 was near normal for the year but that was mainly due to the flood of Jan. 8. Summer was very dry. The farmers nearby only got one cutting of hay. (In 1996 we had so much rain there were 3 cuttings.) The little towns near me are mainly on well water and are now talking about mandatory water restrictions. The local reservoir never recovered from last year when it was down over 15 feet. If you watch the US national weather radar you may notice that the storms all seem to hit the western edge of Virginia, (the mountains) and then split north and south leaving much of northern Virginia dry. It's almost as though we're under a dome.

 

Consequently, in the past 2 years I have lost all the corn I planted, 1/2 to 3/4 of the new tree seedlings and a lot of the new lawn grass. Last year I had to water the two big trees near the house weekly even into late November. This year I have to water them almost daily. It has been very frustrating but that's not why you're here, is it?

1999 US Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd

Well the two hurricanes barely dented our drought here in northern Virginia. Dennis left my yard 4 inches of rain and Floyd only 3 3/4 inches. Hardly enough, what we really need is the weather patterns to change to allow a substantial rain every 10 days or so.

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