By: Jude Bazerman
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) – Syracuse. Dry weather. A city and a description that almost never go together. The last few weeks have proven this narrative to not always be true.
“It feels like you’re living in San Diego or something like that,” said SUNY ESF Professor of Environmental Resources Engineering Stephen Shaw. “It’s a little unusual to basically go three or four weeks without any rain.”
This extended period of no rain has led the US Drought Monitor to consider parts of Central New York, including Syracuse, to be in an “abnormally dry” period.
“It’s been a few months,” said Shaw. “But not long enough into what someone would call a full blown drought.”
Abnormally Dry Conditions vs. Drought
It’s important to know that abnormally dry conditions and droughts aren’t the same. For instance, Syracuse and Central New York are facing the least intense dry conditions according to the US Drought Monitor. However, parts of Arizona and New Mexico are facing “exceptional droughts,” meaning their risk of crop loss, wildfires, and water shortages are much higher.
The severity of droughts also depend on how long dry conditions continue. “The first condition is have you not had normal amounts of rainfall for a few weeks or maybe a month,” Shaw said. “That’s where we are right now. Usually you get some more storm systems coming through, not this pattern where you have no storm system.”
The National Integrated Drought Information System notes that over half of the country is experiencing abnormally dry conditions. These impact plants and crops negatively, but not nearly to the extent or length as more extreme drought levels
Opposite of Spring Weather
Syracuse’s spring weather and weather now couldn’t be more different. May was one of the wettest spring months for the city in recent memory, with nearly five inches of rain for the entire month. Compare that to this month, in which Syracuse has only totaled 0.65 inches of rain so far.
“This is sort of the reverse of the spring,” Shaw said. “Through June people were saying we had gone ten months of having rain every weekend. Now, things seem to have switched over to where we have gone for eight weeks where we basically have minimal rain on the weekend.”
September still has just over a week left until the month is officially over, but it would take record breaking rain to come anywhere close to the rainfall totals seen in May and other spring months.
Impact on Crops and Plants
If it’s ever convenient for Syracuse to be facing the early stages of a drought, mid-September may be the ideal time. Not only is the late summer into early fall period the end of the growing season, but the heavy rains from the spring are still stored in the ground, allowing plants and crops to grow without skipping a beat.
“There might be some people saying it’s dry, but for the most part there’s that early season moisture that’s allowed plants to pretty much grow relatively normally around here [Syracuse],” Shaw said.
However, that doesn’t mean plants and crops growing in Syracuse are in the clear just yet.
“Part of what they [farmers] get concerned for is what happens next spring, because you assume you have a certain amount of recharge through the winter,” Shaw said. “If that doesn’t happen, that’s when people start to get concerned.
Shaw made sure to point out that while Syracuse and the rest of Central New York should be cautious about the abnormally dry conditions, a full blown drought is far from happening.
“It’s something noticeable but the presumption is we’ll come out of this if it starts raining again pretty soon.”