Parts of Boyd, Lawrence, Elliott, and Morgan counties, as well as Robertson and Bracken counties, are in moderate droughts as the state wraps up an abnormally dry summer season. Officials with the National Weather Service said recent rainfall has helped much of the Commonwealth return soil moisture to a healthy level, but some rivers and streams are still low.
Pete Geogerian is a Service Hydrologist with the NWS in Jackson. He said some of these isolated eastern Kentucky counties are experiencing the effects of a much more severe drought throughout West Virginia.
“We saw, a couple of weeks ago, several rounds of showers and thunderstorms that really kind of helped Kentucky, but a lot of those unfortunately missed much of West Virginia. They just weren’t in the right path of those storms. So, unfortunately, it didn’t give them much relief,” said Geogerian.
Geogerian said the areas under drought in Kentucky are relatively isolated, having missed out on rainfall that helped the rest of the region.
“Once you have a longer-term loss of waters and streams are low and soils are really dry, it really takes quite a bit of rain to have that come back, and fortunately we had that round two weeks ago. We even had some flooding of course too, which wasn’t great for the people who had flooding,” said Geogerian. “But overall, we just saw that four or five days of fairly consistent rain off and on over areas that really needed it.”
Geogerian said there isn’t a strong indicator that conditions will get dryer in Kentucky, as short bursts of rainfall are possible through the next few weeks. However, the NWS is keeping an eye on rain patterns moving into autumn, which is typically the dryest season in Kentucky.
According to the US Drought Monitor, approximately 325,000 Kentuckians live in areas experiencing moderate drought. Those people are encouraged to take simple steps like not watering their lawns.