LEBANON — To recover from a drought that started last summer, New Hampshire would need double the amount of rain it normally gets this spring.
As the last of the snowpack dissipates in many areas, at least a third of the Granite State — including portions of southern Grafton and northern Sullivan counties in the Upper Valley — remains in a “severe” drought, according to a map released by the U.S. Drought Monitor last Thursday.
The severe ranking is the third level on a five-point scale; the rest of both counties are a level below, in a “moderate” drought, along with portions of Orange and Windsor counties in Vermont. Last September, nearly all of Grafton County, and portions of Sullivan County, along with parts of Orange and Windsor counties, were under an “extreme” drought.
“Not only do we need to get the 4 inches (per month) we normally get, but in order to make up the deficit, we need another 4 inches a month and we need that for a couple of months,” Ted Diers, assistant director, of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services’ Water Division, said in a phone interview last week. “Once the ground thaws, once there’s no longer the frost in the ground, we need three or four weeks of several inches of rain each week, or maybe over eight weeks.”
This winter, Grafton and Sullivan counties received 6 to 8 inches of snow per month, which is 2 to 3 inches less than historic averages, according to data from the High Plains Regional Climate Center, which is joint project between the federal National Centers for Environmental Information, or NCEI, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Portions of Grafton and Sullivan counties — and slivers of Orange and Windsor counties — have a precipitation deficit of 9 to 15 inches over the last nine months, according to data from the High Plains Regional Climate Center.
“That’s pretty significant,” Diers said. “Why we’re still in a drought is because we have such a deep hole to climb out of.”
The majority of the snow that fell this year in northern New England was fluffier and had a lower water content, which did not do enough to make up for the precipitation deficit, Seth Kutikoff, a meteorologist with at the National Weather Service’s Burlington branch, said.
“When it comes to the snow melt in relation to the drought conditions, the amount of contribution of the snowmelt to the area’s waterways would be a little bit less if it was a wetter snow,” Kutikoff said in a phone interview last week. “It will depend on the spring rainfall. If we have some heavy rain events, it would change things completely.”
If the region doesn’t, the drought could persist or get even worse.
“If we don’t get that, the summer is shaping up to look pretty rough because we’re starting at such a steep deficit,” Diers said.
Todd Lucas, of Newport-based Robert Lucas & Sons Well Drilling, is also looking toward the warmer months. Last summer, the family business fielded dozens of calls from homeowners whose water pressure dropped or had water run out completely.
Many of those calls came from people who have “surface wells,” also known as “dug wells.”
“You need rain for those wells,” Lucas said in a phone interview last week. “We probably did, just with the drought, an additional 20 to 30 wells, with the surface wells drying up.”
In response, the business put in “drilled wells,” which go deeper into the ground and can access water in the bedrock, which dug wells cannot. Costs tend to range from $15,000 to $25,000 to put in a drilled well.
“Usually it does scare people,” Lucas said of the cost. “It gets people thinking, ‘Let’s start saving up here for the next drought’.”
Those calls tapered off last fall, but if drought conditions continue, Lucas said he expects them to pick up again.
The city of Lebanon, which gets its drinking water from the Mascoma River, still has mandatory water restrictions in place because of the drought, Lebanon Public Works Director Jay Cairelli said in a Monday phone interview. The restrictions apply to “lawn and landscape watering,” as well as residential washing of vehicles.
“We’re still under the same severe drought restrictions, but it doesn’t impact people through the winter as much because they’re not trying to water their lawns or anything,” Cairelli said.
If the drought continues into mid-May, city officials will remind residents of those restrictions.
“Right now we’re fine,” Cairelli said about the city’s water supply. “Definitely as the spring progresses we’re going to have keep an eye on everything.”