Very little rain has made for an unusually dry start to April.

By March 23, all of Western New York was abnormally dry. Fast forward to the latest report from Thursday, it’s only gotten worse with the vast majority of the region now considered being in a moderate drought.

What exactly does that all mean, though? Abnormally dry areas that are going into a drought means short-term dryness that can slow the planting and growth of crops or pastures. 

A step above that is moderate drought. That’s where plants can be damaged, waterways run low, and voluntary water use restrictions may even be requested. 

So let’s go back and recap. During March, the Buffalo Airport picked up 1.92 inches of water, with some of that coming from the 0.6 inches of snow that fell.

That was nearly an inch below average for March, so we were already going into April with a notable deficit in place. 

Keep in mind, this latest drought monitor only reflects data through Tuesday morning. Since April 6, Buffalo has only picked up an additional 0.02 inches of rain, which is too little to make a difference.

Before that, the Buffalo Airport had only received 0.04 inches of water for the month. Some of that can be traced back to the tenth of the inch of snow that fell on April Fool’s Day.

It may be early in the month, but that’s still well below average for this point in April. Typically, Buffalo picks up roughly 0.84 inches of water by now.

Still, it takes time to get into a drought, and it'll take time to get out of one. Even with more rain in the forecast before the 8 a.m. cutoff for the next drought monitor on Tuesday, it’ll take some significant soaking rain to show any real improvements with future drought reports.

Unfortunately, the latest 8-14 precipitation outlook from the Climate Prediction Center has Western New York included in the probability of seeing more below-average rainfall.  

Long story short, any rain is welcomed at this point!

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