Drought continues in NW Ohio

Moderate drought continues in Hancock County and most of Northwest Ohio, but conditions are expected to improve, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. On Thursday, the Drought Monitor issued a new map showing Hancock County is still experiencing moderate drought conditions, with the exception of the southern edge of the county, where the drought advisory has been lifted. The area is still considered abnormally dry. Rainfall over the past two weeks has improved the dry conditions throughout most of the state. According to the latest forecast, the drought advisory for Northwest Ohio will most likely be lifted by the end of July. "It has been a little bit wetter, but even though it has been raining, there is still a pretty substantial deficit," said Alexa Maines, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Cleveland. "It will take a few more large rain events to overcome that deficit." In the Findlay area, a total of 1.73 inches of rain was recorded in June. The normal amount of rainfall for the month is 3.93 inches. A total of 3.59 inches of rain was recorded in March. Normal rainfall for the month is 2.33 inches. However, in April, rainfall was about half the norm, with a total of 1.8 inches recorded. Normal rainfall for April is 3.42 inches. Rainfall in May was well below the norm of 3.75 inches. Only 0.94 of an inch was recorded for the month. Prior to June 11, there had been no rainfall in Northwest Ohio for 21 days, according to the weather service. July has started out slightly drier than the norm, but Maines said the forecast now favors above-normal rainfall. If the forecast proves true, Maines said drought conditions should end soon, or at least show improvement. "The rain has been really hit and miss, and very localized, so that's probably why the drought hasn't improved much in Northwest Ohio," she said. "It's been wet, but the wet pattern will need to continue." The U.S. Drought Monitor was established in 1999 as a partnership between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. About 250 climatologists and extension agents work to update drought maps each week and report how drought conditions are affecting crops and wildlife. According to the Drought Monitor, over the past century precipitation trends in the Midwest have moved toward wetter conditions and fewer droughts than the region experienced in the early 20th century. Droughts in both 1988 and 2012, however, interrupted barge transportation on major rivers, decreased agriculture production, impacted municipal supplies of water and its quality and reduced the production of hydropower. In the fall of 2022, drought conditions across portions of the Mississippi River Basin lowered the river and had a significant impact on the transportation of goods along the river. The most severe drought for Northwest Ohio in recent years occurred in July 2016 and reached the rank of "D2", according to the Drought Monitor. "D2" is considered a severe drought. The worst of the drought conditions only lasted for about a week in 2016, but precipitation remained below normal that year through September.