Drought — Southern Coos, New Hampshire

2020-09-01 to 2020-09-30 · Southern Coos, New Hampshire

Event narrative

Drought continued to expand and intensified through the month of September with the state of New Hampshire recording the 7th driest September on record. D2 severe drought expanded to cover every county in New Hampshire by the end of the month. In addition, an area of D3 extreme drought developed Strafford and parts of Rockingham, Carroll and Merrimack Counties by the end of the month. D3 covered 22% of the state by the end of the month. Since Mid-May Concord was 10.5 below normal while Manchester was 13 below normal. Hydrologic conditions continued to worsen in September on non-regulated rivers with 81% of USGS river gaging stations below normal and 9% of sites at record lows for the end of September. Reservoir levels continued to trend below normal on the upper Connecticut River along with Lake Winnipesaukee reporting a water level of .6ft below normal. Overall lake levels were on par with the 2016 drought. In New Hampshire of the monitoring wells maintained by the USGS and the state of New Hampshire, the majority were below average with Pembroke reporting record low levels for the date. Numerous water bans and restrictions remained in effect during the month of September with virtually all towns in Southern and Central New Hampshire having issued a water ban impacting 400,000 residents. Numerous dry wells were reported by state agencies. Corn, potatoes, barley fruit crops and forage crops are the most affected. Farmers are concerned about having enough forage for their livestock to get through the winter. Dairy industry was especially impacted due to low grass yields.

Wider weather episode

Dry conditions developed rapidly across New Hampshire starting in the middle of May. The period May 16 to June 25 was exceedingly dry. There was some relief in late June and July, especially in the White Mountains and parts of southwest New Hampshire due to thunderstorm activity. By the middle of August, dry conditions set in again with September being exceedingly dry with some locations reporting their driest September on record. The National Centers for Environmental Information reported that September was the 7th driest on record for New Hampshire. D2 severe drought was confined to coastal New Hampshire, the Merrimack River Valley and the Lakes Region during the beginning of the month. The D2 severe drought rapidly expanded through the entire state by the end of September. An area of D3 extreme drought area developing towards the end of September in Southeast New Hampshire with Strafford County being the hardest hit, along with regions of surrounding counties.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 922915. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.