Story by Eugene Tauber, The Morning Call |
No part of Pennsylvania is in the two highest drought designations, and only about one-quarter of the state is in any form of drought. All of Lehigh and half of Northampton counties remain in severe drought conditions, or D2, as climate scientists designate it. The remaining half of Northampton is in D1 — moderate drought.
The state has been unusually dry since June of last year.
A soggy start to April lends some hope that drought conditions in the Lehigh Valley and southeastern Pennsylvania might finally improve. But it hasn’t happened yet.
The Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published its drought outlook for the month of April. The map shows a strip along the Delaware River — including a portion of Northampton County — might be out of drought by the end of the month.
Hydrologists — those who study water above, on, in and under the ground — typically track precipitation, waterway and aquifer conditions according to the water year, not the calendar year. A water year runs from Oct. 1 through the following Sep. 30. Tracking conditions that way more closely comports with seasonal weather patterns and how water systems are replenished by snow and rain.
When you look at Allentown’s rainfall since the beginning of the 2025 water year, which is half over, it’s easy to see why the Lehigh Valley is still in drought.
Local precipitation is at only 63% of the 30-year average for the first six months of the water year. March was the only month that beat the average, and it did so by only 5 percent. The region is 7.7 inches behind the average for the water year.
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