Series of Storms Presents Fast Solution to East Coast Drought

A rainy, snowy fall and early winter are quickly quenching the remnants of the two-year drought along the East Coast.

The Christmas storm that blew across Pennsylvania, New York and New England was icing on the cake for soil moisture and groundwater watchers, said Randy Durlin of the U.S. Geological Survey in Harrisburg.

Even before the storm, Durlin said Friday, “we’ve seen great recovery. It’s been perfect, it’s just been slow rain. The ground didn’t freeze, so it soaked in.”

Drought designations were already lifted in Pennsylvania and most East Coast states, though concerns remained about low water tables and aquifers in New Jersey, central Virginia and Maine’s northern tip.

“If we keep this pattern going, pretty soon those areas will be going too,” said David Miskus, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center. “It took a long time to build this drought. We’ve actually cut it back pretty quickly.”

The long drought lowered wells, slowed waterways and damaged agriculture, leaving farmers with the worst corn crop in years and limiting water for livestock. Many areas declared drought emergencies, limiting such activities as washing cars and watering lawns; many also banned outdoor burning.

The drought emergency ended in Pennsylvania when Gov. Mark Schweiker lifted the designation for three remaining counties Dec. 19. Monitoring wells that showed below-normal water tables in southeastern Pennsylvania have risen rapidly in the last few weeks to normal or above-normal levels, Durlin said.

A drought emergency is in effect in New Jersey. The Department of Environmental Protection lifted water restrictions in the northern part of the state, but environmental Commissioner Bradley Campbell said southern New Jersey aquifers would take longer to replenish.

“That’s one of the last things to recharge,” Miskus said. “We’ll slowly chisel it away.”

Officials in northern Maine said it would take several consecutive months of above-normal precipitation to restore groundwater levels to normal.

As it melts, the new 1- to 2-foot blanket of snow from northeastern Pennsylvania to New England will continue to pour water into streams and reservoirs, raising groundwater levels.

Moderate drought continues as far east as Michigan, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies. The Christmas snow was particularly encouraging to officials at the Delaware River Basin Commission.

Catskill Mountain reservoirs that send drinking water to New York City were at record lows in January, and after a virtually snowless winter remained low in June going into the dry summer months, DRBC spokesman Chris Roberts said.

After the wet fall, the reservoirs were rippling with 213 billion gallons of water -- 79% of capacity compared with a normal of 68% for most of December.

Tributaries were brimming and rivers flowed strongly. The “salt line” where Atlantic Ocean water mingles with fresh water flowing downstream was 70 miles above the mouth of Delaware Bay, four miles below its normal location for the date.