RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia’s drought is continuing its dramatic improvement, with extreme drought nearly disappearing from the state and the Richmond area showing some of its best conditions in months.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor, released Thursday and based on conditions through Tuesday, shows 42% of the state is in the very dry category, 26% is in moderate drought, 18% is in severe drought, and just 0.3% remains in extreme drought.
Compared to last week’s figures of 22% very dry, 42% moderate, 21% severe, and 4% extreme, the most dramatic shift is a 20-percentage-point jump in the very dry category — almost entirely absorbed from moderate drought, indicating large areas that were in moderate drought have improved to just abnormally dry conditions.
Extreme drought has nearly vanished, now limited to a small isolated pocket near Danville…