RICHMOND, Va. — Recent rainfall has brought a glimmer of relief to the Richmond area and Tri-Cities, but Virginia’s historic drought has reached emergency status in the Roanoke region — and the rest of the Commonwealth is not out of the woods.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor, released Thursday and based on conditions through Tuesday morning, shows meaningful improvement across multiple drought categories statewide. Areas near Richmond down to the Tri-Cities are no longer in drought status, having been downgraded to the abnormally dry category. Extreme drought has dropped from 26% to 17% — a decrease of nearly 10 percentage points. Severe drought has fallen 7 points to 33%.
However, the improvement does not tell the full story, according to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. That agency says all areas of the Commonwealth continue to experience historic drought conditions, as statewide rainfall is 7.8 inches below normal for the water year — making this the second-driest water year on record.
The Roanoke region has received only 57% of its normal rainfall, and that region has now reached drought emergency status…