BUFFALO, N.Y. — The latest U.S. Drought Monitor weekly update for October 12th shows a very dry scene locally.
Most of eastern Wyoming County and extreme southern Genesee County are under Severe Drought conditions, and much of Genesee county is also now under Moderate Drought conditions, which extends into northern Allegany county.
Most of the rest of Western New York is no longer back to normal conditions, but rather in the 'abnormally dry' conditions once again, including much of northern Pennsylvania especially McKean county (as seen on the map above).
Part of the Southern Tier at least is back to normal conditions from consistent rainfall during the second week of October. And parts of Wyoming county are back to Moderate Drought conditions rather than Severe Drought a week ago.
Consistent drier stretches our area had and also near record heat for early October dried out our area and knocked out the beneficial rounds of rain earlier in the month of September that brought many areas back to normal conditions. August rainfall was above average for most of the month as well.
It was a very dry start to the warm season. June 10 marked 21 consecutive days of no measurable rain at the Buffalo airport since 1938, which ranks ninth for driest stretches on record, according to National Weather Service records. If you look at data since the 1870s, it's tied for the top-18 driest stretches.
And not a lot of rain fell for the months of May and June, with most days being without rain. May fell well below average with rainfall, and June was about an inch below the monthly average for rain.
However, July had well above average rainfall with 5.54 inches of rain recorded at the Buffalo airport. The average for the month is 3.23 inches.
As of Aug. 24, the rain totals for the month were running above average at 2.63 inches of rain received. The average is 2.40 inches. The month ended with around average rainfall. The monthly temperatures were running about 2.5 degrees below average, which also helps keep the rain in the soil further and not evaporate it quickly back out into the lower atmosphere as much.
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