Drought — Craig, Virginia

2019-10-01 to 2019-10-22 · Craig, Virginia

Event narrative

Severe drought (D2) was depicted across about the northern half of Craig County on the U.S. Drought Monitor from October 1st to October 22nd. Impacts were primarily agricultural and included pasture losses and reduced hay cuttings.

Wider weather episode

Parts of southwestern and south central Virginia entered the severe drought classification (D2 on a scale from D0 to D4) on the October 1st issuance of the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor and remained there for the next three weeks (until issuance of October 22nd). Dry conditions actually began as far back as July and August in some areas but the rainfall was very uneven. It was a very dry and hot September that really caused a rapid deterioration in the drought situation in much of Virginia. Several NWS COOP sites had all-time driest Septembers or even the driest of any month. The dry conditions were aggravated by an early October heat wave with numerous record or near-record highs occurred from October 1st through 4th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 860473. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.