The U.S. Drought Monitor released on Thursday, August 20 showed drought and/or abnormally dry conditions improve in the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England. However, conditions deteriorated in northern New England. There were generally limited changes elsewhere in the region.

• Severe and/or moderate drought was reduced in eastern West Virginia, central Maryland, south-central Pennsylvania, and southeastern Massachusetts but expanded in Maine.
• Abnormal dryness was erased from several spots including central and southern West Virginia, northern and southeastern New York, and central Massachusetts but spread in eastern Vermont, central New Hampshire, and western Maine.
• Record-low seven-day streamflow was confined to only a few spots in coastal New Jersey, New York’s Long Island, and central Maine.
• Groundwater levels were record low in several areas including parts of Maryland, central and southern New Jersey, and southern Maine.
• The short-term outlooks for August 25-September 2 predict near- or above-normal precipitation and near- or above-normal temperatures for most of the Northeast, which could potentially bring improvements to locations that see notable rainfall amounts or keep conditions unchanged in areas that see less.

For more information, see the Northeast DEWS Dashboard (to see the full Northeast, click on the grayed-out Pennsylvania in the map in the top left) and the Northeast Drought Update. Submit drought impact reports via the Condition Monitoring Observer Reports (CMOR) page.