Rain that fell across the D.C. region over the seven days through Memorial Day brought a needed break from the dry stretch, but it was not enough to end the drought that has gripped the area for months.
Roughly 2 to 5 inches of rain fell across the entire region, and Brian LaSorsa said the next Drought Monitor update on Thursday should show improvement. Some parts of the area could even return to a moderate drought classification, he said, but the rainfall did not come close to fully erasing the problem.
The change matters because the region was in severe drought as of May 19, after 31% of the area met that classification in April. The U.S. Drought Monitor, updated weekly by federal agency and research partners, is the standard gauge for tracking how quickly conditions improve or worsen, and this week’s rain was the first widespread relief in a while.
LaSorsa said the rain was helpful in another way: it fell slowly enough that moisture could soak into the ground instead of running off quickly. “And it’s occurred across the entire area, which is good,” he said, adding that, “This wasn’t enough to break the drought, but it does help a little bit.”
That caution fits the numbers. Rainfall at Reagan National Airport has averaged about 10 inches below normal going back to May last year, a deficit that cannot be erased by one wet week. LaSorsa said several more rain events would be needed to break the drought, and he said a tropical system could do it as well.
“We’d have to have several more events like this, and of course, if you get a tropical system or something like that, that could break the drought as well,” he said. For now, the region has gained some ground, but Thursday’s update is more likely to mark a step back from the worst of it than a full recovery.
