Extreme drought expands in OH and WV

(WOWK) — Extreme Drought conditions have expanded across the WOWK viewing area in West Virginia and Ohio according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor. The bright red areas are considered to be in the category of ‘Extreme Drought’ on the map below.

Other ways to visualize the conditions start with the lack of rainfall compared to normal over the last 30 days. The red areas in the image shown below are about 3 inches behind normal for the last month.

Only a few spots in Scioto County, Nicholas County and southeastern Kentucky are at or above normal in terms of normal rainfall over the last month.

Weather models do not hold much hope in the next week for much in the way of rain. The official government forecast for rainfall totals is shown immediately below.

If there is any hope for rain, it lies in the American GFS model which shows some heavy showers late Wednesday 8/28 into Thursday 8/29. The rainfall model output is shown below but it should be noted that this rainfall is NOT projected in the medium range European model which has a good forecast reputation.

Compounding the drought conditions will be the prolonged stretch of heat. Highs reach 90 and above on Saturday which likely lasts for a week or more.

Stay with StormTracker 13 and WOWK TV for more coverage of the dry weather and the impacts to the area. Grab the StormTracker 13 weather app to stay ahead of the weather. It’s free and you can get it by clicking on the link directly below.

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