Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - With the heat and humidity ramping up in Western New York, the region is currently experiencing something that has not been classified since 2017: A drought.
"What we're in now is, what's called, a 'flash drought', where it's not really long-term issue, but it's developed at the beginning of July, and we've been in this pattern where there's a number of communities, chunks of the Northtowns into Central Erie County, that have been dry for about a month now, and it's starting to show in the grasses and lawns across Western New York." said meteorologist Andy Parker with WBEN.
Buffalo has the largest population in the United States that has never reached over 100 degrees for air temperature. Parker expects it to stay that way for a while.
"Buffalo has a natural air conditioner known as Lake Erie," Parker said. "Even when the temperature is up close to 80 degrees, it still creates enough cooling effect on most really hot days that it's tough for the airport to reach that triple-digit mark, because the winds will push inland just enough to keep it in the 90s."
Parker notes the Canadian wild fires do not have any sort of the impact with the ongoing drought on the region.
So when will this drought begin to end?
"Looking down the road, we're going to get some rain once we get into Wednesday to Friday, not enough to reverse course, but enough to, at least, stall the effects temporarily," Parker said. "After that, it looks like another one of these heat domes set up, and by the time we get to mid-August, will heat into the 90s once again. Following that, that's when we start to see more of a change back into the upper-70s and upper-80s towards the end of August. There's no immediate relief, but there are going to be some shots of showers."