Drought — Southern Carroll, New Hampshire

2020-10-01 to 2020-10-31 · Southern Carroll, New Hampshire

Event narrative

The drought peaked in intensity during the first week of October before beneficial widespread rains impacted the state towards the middle of October. Concord received a monthly rainfall total of 5.11, Manchester received 4.01, Whitefield received 5.48, and Durham received 4.59. Even with the October rainfall, deficits since Jan 1st remained at -9.77 at Concord, -10.66 at Whitefield and -12.42 at Manchester. Drought monitor classifications in October had a positive trend or maintained with no worsening of drought conditions in part of the state. During the first week of October 95% of the state was in D2 Severe drought and 22% of the state was in D3 Extreme drought. By the end of the month the areal extent of D2 Severe drought had decreased to 33% of the state and D3 Extreme drought decreased to 17% of the state. Overall, the greatest improvements were across Northern and Western New Hampshire, where D1 Moderate drought remained. Severe and Extreme drought remained centered across southeast New Hampshire by the end of the month. Hydrologic conditions continued to worsen in the first week of October on non-regulated rivers with 81% of USGS river gaging stations below normal and 9% of sites at record lows for the beginning of October. Hydrologic conditions began to improve by mid-month due to the heavy rainfall with most river basins near the normal range by the end of October. Reservoir levels continued to trend below normal on the upper Connecticut River along with Lake Winnipesaukee which remained half a foot below normal by the end of the month. 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 record low levels across southeast New Hampshire for the date. Numerous water bans and restrictions remained in effect during the month of October with virtually all towns in Southern and Central New Hampshire having issued a water ban impacting 400,000 residents. An estimated 1000 private residents had dry wells with state agencies reporting over 100 applicants fore well assistance. Corn, potatoes, barley fruit crops and forage crops were the most affected. Farmers were 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. The drought peaked in intensity during the first week of October before beneficial widespread rains impacted the state towards the middle of October. Concord received a monthly rainfall total of 5.11, Manchester received 4.01, Whitfield received 5.48, and Durham received 4.59. Towards the middle of the month most of Coos County was reduced from D2 Severe Drought to D1 Moderate Drought. Drought classification continued to improve by the third week in October due to the heavy rains. Grafton, Sullivan, and Cheshire Counties were reduced from D2 Severe Drought to D1 Moderate Drought. The northern and western sections of Carroll, Belknap, Merrimack and Hillsborough Counties also showed a drought classification improvement by the end of the month. Severe and Extreme drought remained across southeast New Hampshire through the end of the month.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 926863. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.