Buffalo, NY (WBEN) While Western New York saw a little bit of rain over the weekend, it's been dry the last few days. However, meteorologists say we are not near drought status as is much of the northeast U.S.
National Weather Service meteorologist Philip Pandolfo says New York State has a drought monitor, and as of the last update on Thursday, WNY is not in a drought. "The topsoil is certainly getting pretty dried out, but we haven't seen the more significant impacts of the drought despite the abnormally low rainfall," says Pandolfo.
Pandolfo says given the dry pattern that we're in, and the dry pattern that we're anticipating, there's not much in the way of meaningful rainfall in at least the next seven day forecast. He says that could change the drought status in a couple of weeks.
Andy Parker of AskAndy.com says while it's been dry the last couple of weeks, we've had plenty of moisture earlier this year. "When we look at what happened in January, February, March, April in the first part of May, each month, we've actually had a surplus of moisture, whether it was in the form of snow or a combination of snow and rain," says Parker. He says both March and April were damp and cool, and so was the start of May, but the trend has been to dry out and he says that's where we're headed for the rest of the month.
Parker says there are several varieties of drought. He says first, there's what's called abnormally dry, where you go through a few weeks where you really don't get any rain, and the ground begins to harden. "Then you enter what would be a moderate drought. This is where you start to see the lawns begin to brown, some crops that aren't irrigated have some risk to it. Wells and creeks and streams run very low. And then there's severe drought, that's where you go at an extended period of time, sometimes an entire season with exceptionally low rain levels," explains Parker. He says right now, we're not close to a drought. But he says we could use a couple more rainy days.
If you're thinking of starting your summer gardening, Pandolfo says you might want to hold off. "We will be looking at a couple of cold nights coming up here," notes Pandolfo. The first one will be Wednesday night however it will be a little bit on the breezy side so the frost potential will be minimal. Another pretty chilly night is forecast Thursday night as well, with low temperatures overnight in the 30s. Parker says it looks like the Northtowns, the metro and the Southtowns will be frost free for the remainder of the month.
