Photo by Scott Shoreman

Have you noticed that it hasn’t rained in a while?

We may have dodged Hurricane Earl, but now the D.C. area is facing a drought. In fact, there hasn’t been any significant precipitation since August 23. For the year, rainfall as recorded at National Airport has been off by some 21%.

The Capital Weather Gang has a good round-up of the current situation, and they note that things aren’t nearly as bad as they could be. Whew. The extreme thunderstorms we’ve experienced this summer provided some much needed rain, though hot temperatures have caused soil moisture to evaporate. We’ve seen drought conditions the past few years, so this isn’t much of a surprise.

Presently the worst is in the surrounding areas, in parts of West Virginia and Maryland. Northern Virginia has also seen large rain deficits. Essentially we’re being surrounded by drought conditions, and it could get worse. Meteorologists suspect the presence of La Nina may result in drier than usual fall.

The Council of Governments has issued a drought watch, which will spur some voluntary conservation efforts. There’s no immediate danger of water supplies running dry, so we aren’t yet urging readers to prepare a drought survival kit.