Northeast Drought, Wildfire Risk Could Last Through October

The drought that has taken hold in the Northeast, from Maine to Pennsylvania, is being driven by a second year of below-average rainfall. Though not as dire as the West Coast drought of five-years running, the dry, hot weather has stressed farms and gardens, prompted water restrictions and bans in many towns and threatened to bring more wildfires than usual.

The drought is being felt at John Lavoie’s farm in Hollis, N.H

“We need some rain pretty quick,” Lavoie said. “There is just some corn that won’t make it. A lot of things we would like to give water to, we can’t.”

In the hardest hit areas of western New York, Massachusetts and southern parts of New Hampshire and Maine, it’s been dryer than in a decade or more. And weather experts predict the drought will persist at least through the end of October.

“The Northeast is a little bit of a mixed bag, but the bottom line is that the conditions have deteriorated over the past several weeks to a couple of months,” said Rich Tinker, a drought specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

If there were a drought epicenter, it probably would be Massachusetts. More than 74 percent of the state, according to the United States Drought Monitor, is experiencing some degree of drought.

“Some farmers are abandoning crops because it’s not worth the financial risk of harvesting them,” said Katie Campbell-Nelson, a vegetable production specialist with the UMass Extension Vegetable Program.

The dry conditions have raised the risk of wildfires in Massachusetts, said Dave Celino, chief forest fire warden for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. Typically, the state records about 1,600 wildland fires a year. This year, it’s already seen more than 1,000.

Meanwhile, some wells are going dry in Connecticut and the blueberry crop in Maine will be slightly smaller this year than the past two, said Nancy McBrady, of the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine.