Severe drought grips Richmond after months of dry weather
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Richmond, and most of the state, has been in severe drought for nearly a month, according to U.S. Drought Monitor.
Why it matters: The dry conditions are threatening farms, plunging the James to low levels and raising wildfire risk across the region.
Driving the news: The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) placed metro Richmond and nearly all of Virginia under a drought warning last month.
- A drought warning is DEQ's second highest response advisory and means "a significant drought event is imminent," per the agency.
- The advisories "are largely for awareness" for localities to adjust or implement their plans, DEQ's Weedon Cloe tells Axios.
- With a warning, DEQ recommends localities include water conservation information on their websites and suggest minimizing nonessential water use.
Yes, but: None of the Richmond-area localities have done so, per an Axios review of their websites.
- Henrico had a burn ban in place for just over a week in mid-April due the drought and some windy conditions, but the county's fire marshal's office tells Axios they have no plans to reissue one.
- Chesterfield has no plans to issue recreational burn bans or restrict water usage, a county spokesperson tells Axios.
- And Richmond didn't return Axios' request for comment about their plans.
Meanwhile, smoke from a 17-acre brush fire at a Chesterfield tree farm on Saturday lingered in the area for much of the weekend, per the county fire department.
- The cause of the fire hasn't been determined.
Zoom in: April was among the region's driest on record, WWBT reports, closing out with under an inch of rain, well below the more than 3 inches Richmond typically gets.
- March, too, brought significantly less rainfall than normal, according to the National Weather Service.
- The James River through Richmond, which is usually 4.5 to 5 feet high, now sits below 4 feet, per the latest reading.
The intrigue: Richmond had been under a drought watch, one level below a warning, since November.
- That's because, despite last year's rainy summer and our aggressively frozen winter, the region still didn't get the precipitation it needed, Cloe says.
What they're saying: "We have been in a precipitation deficit for some time now. … Well before last November," Cloe says.
- "Without sufficient rainfall soon, it will not be getting any better."
What we're watching: The forecast, for any sign of rain.