The dry weather so far this fall has led to Gov. Ned Lamont issuing a stage two drought advisory for all of Connecticut. His office said it’s due to the lack of rain and ongoing fire danger in our state.
“This area of the country in this part of Connecticut should generally get somewhere in the area of seven to eight inches of rainfall,” John Bagioni, a consulting meteorologist with Fax Weather Service.
The sight of rain is typically par for the course in Connecticut during the start of fall, but this year had brought little if any. Bagioni, who works with schools and businesses, says this fall has been quite dry with only about an inch or an inch and a half in September and October.
“A good six to seven inches of rainfall deficit over the period of 60 days or so,” he said.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
The lack of rain has brought Gov. Lamont to declare a stage two drought advisory for the entire state. Stage one is the lowest and stage five is the most extreme.
Lamont says this move is due to the dry conditions and the current fire danger, with a number of brush fires burning across the state. Bagioni these are ripe conditions for a fire to spark.
“It only takes a small little flick of maybe a cigarette or a little bit of a grill out there somewhere to get a brush fire going,” he said.
Local
He says in the past couple of years, the state has seen very wet summers and falls, but very dry falls have happened in the 1960s, impacting farming.
“Those droughts were a little bit different in that a lot of them developed during the spring and continued through the summer,” he said.
Bagioni says since much of the picking season has been done this year, farms aren’t as impacted. He does say the dry weather has been a boon for landscapers picking up fallen leaves.
“There's not a lot of times leaves will get soaking wet and clog up and, you know, in areas, and they're very difficult to blow around and move,” he said.
This stage two drought advisory also involves asking people to voluntarily shut off automatic outdoor irrigation and minimizing water use by fixing leaky plumbing and fixtures.
