Roanoke, VA – While we only had two days of rain during the timeframe for this week’s drought update, it happened to end up being very beneficial for the state.
This week’s drought monitor update saw improvements most notably in the Piedmont part of the state as well as towards the Shenandoah Valley. This led to a nearly 12% drop in extreme drought conditions statewide, and nearly a 3% drop in severe drought conditions.
While this is a very notable improvement, there’s still a ways to go before we end up completely out of this drought. We need around 7-11″ of rain (depending on what region of the state you are in) over the course of the next month to completely dissolve drought conditions.
From a statewide view, we’ve been in this drought for quite some time now. The last time the entirety of the state was NOT under any kind of drought was August 5th, 2025. As for our viewing area, that was August 26th, 2025.
Throughout 2026, we’ve had some degree of drought from a statewide standpoint, it just hasn’t been as visible as it’s been over the last month. The last time we saw dramatic improvements was in mid February, where we had finally started seeing all that snow and ice melt, leading to a substantial improvement in soil conditions.
However, as spring rolled around, so did an increase in agricultural production and outdoor recreation. In turn, seeing the impacts on farms, lakes, and rivers made in much more evident we had drought conditions.
As we get into the hottest months of the year, we’ll need some more moisture to flow from the south to give us the best chance for rain. Granted, we don’t want to end up in a situation where we get a lot of rain in a tight window of time, or else then we need to worry about flash flooding, which is just as harmful.
There’s a few chances of rain as we get into next week, particularly on Sunday and Monday. We’ll see how much rain we get those days, but any amount is beneficial.