New York City facing ‘severe’ drought conditions

The entire New York City area is facing drought conditions, as dry conditions this summer have lingered for months.

Staten Island, southern Brooklyn, parts of New Jersey and the south shore of Long Island are in “severe” drought conditions, according to the federal government’s drought monitor.

The city’s other boroughs along with Long Island, New Jersey and parts of some upstate New York counties are in “moderate drought”.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned on Thursday that drought conditions can increase the risk of wildfires and dry out crops.

According to the drought monitor, New York City has had just 25-50 per cent of normal rainfall over the past 30 days. Some corners of nearby New Jersey, Long Island, Connecticut and the Hudson Valley have had less than 25 per cent.

But the weather has been dry all summer. This year was the 25th driest June-July period on record in Kings County, home to Brooklyn, and the 26th driest June-July on record for Queens County.

June-July this year was the 16th driest on record for Richmond County, home to Staten Island.

Parts of New England are in more intense drought conditions. The Boston area, along with eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island, is in “extreme” drought. The drought monitor warns that such intensely dry conditions can lead to crop failures and wildlife disease outbreaks.

Drought conditions in the northeast have been getting progressively worse in the past few weeks. However earlier this month, The New York Times reported that drought is somewhat less of an issue in New York City than in decades past as conservation efforts have lowered the city’s water needs.

In 2021, New Yorkers used about 115 gallons per person, per day, according to the city’s Department of Environmental Protection. In 1979, residents of the five boroughs used about 213 gallons per person, per day.

There’s not too much agriculture in the city proper. But in nearby New Jersey, crops like soybeans, corn and apples are smaller than usual, reports NBC4 News.

Rockland County, north of the city, and parts of Suffolk County, on Long Island, have also declared “water emergencies”, limiting use as a result of the drought.

Some areas in the northeast have even seen some small wildfires. This month, a 12-acre fire burned in Harriman State Park, about 36 miles (58 kilometres) north of New York City. Massachusetts has seen more than 100 wildfires in August, NBC Boston reports.

But drought conditions are much worse in the southwest and western regions of the country. Much of Texas, California, Nevada and other western states are in “extreme” or even “exceptional” drought conditions.

That corner of the county is in the grips of a decades-long “megadrought” fuelled by the climate crisis that has threatened water supplies for over 20 years, resulting in the driest period for at least 1,200 years.

The past couple of years have been especially bad. This week marked the 100th week in a row that at least 40 per cent of the contiguous US was in drought conditions, according to the drought monitor — a record.

And droughts could get a lot more common as the climate crisis grows.

So far, the world has warmed about 1.1-1.2 degrees Celsius above 19th-century temperatures. According to the UN’s climate science body, if the world reached 2C of warming, droughts that used to occur once every ten years would happen more than twice as often and get even drier.