Drought is widening and worsening across Virginia, putting a strain on the state’s farmers and elevating the fall fire danger.
It’s not the usual fall dry-out: We’ve kept summer’s temperatures without its storms.
The marked drop in rain totals since mid-August — coupled with unusually persistent heat for this late in the year — means pastures, grasses and undergrowth are drying out, while springs, creeks and ponds dwindle. Generally, the situation is most critical in the state’s far southwestern counties.
In just about every corner of the commonwealth, this September has so far failed to bring any substantial rain. Most areas have monthly totals well below 1 inch, or less than 25 percent of normal. September rainfall is merely 5% of normal in quite a few fields and backyards along and west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The only exception to the trend was a sliver of far southeastern Virginia that got briefly soaked by Hurricane Dorian.
As of Thursday, 55% of the state was classified as being in a moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. That’s a rapid increase from 5% coverage one week ago, and zero drought during the summer.
The drought zone is patchy in nature but encompasses most of the southwestern, Southside and central regions, along with pockets in Northern Virginia and Tidewater. That’s because late summer’s hit-or-miss thunderstorm downpours left some areas better off than others.
Drought conditions in Virginia as of Sept. 26, 2019.
An additional 42% of the state is abnormally dry, or a drought precursor status.
As of Thursday, 15 counties across southwestern and south-central Virginia, plus Danville, had a burn ban in effect, according to the Virginia Department of Forestry’s online map. With ongoing dry weather, new restrictions might go into effect elsewhere in the region.
Long-term drought indicators are faring better. Due to the very wet conditions last year, water supply reservoirs and most groundwater observation wells are within normal ranges, according to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. No major locality is imposing water restrictions.
But the short-term impacts of the dry spell go well beyond low streams and parched backyards. This drought developed rather quickly, and it’s hitting farms hardest and first.
From far Southwest Virginia to the Shenandoah Valley, the poor condition of pasture land is forcing farmers to feed their cattle with hay two to three months earlier than they usually would, or haul water where the natural supply has dried up. On top of that, hay cuttings are underwhelming or poor in many areas. Some are already marketing calves that would typically graze and put on more weight throughout the fall months.
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In Caroline County, the soybeans are struggling from the recent lack of rainfall. The crop planted in spring is drying down for harvest unusually early and yielding smaller beans, according to Virginia Cooperative Extension agent Mike Broaddus. But he cautions that the bad conditions are spotty, depending on where the plants could catch summer rain.
Meanwhile, late-planted soybeans are drooping and even dying as the dry spell wears on.
There’s time left for farmers to consider planting their fall cover crops, typically grains, but not if the weather remains this dry.
“It’s almost like concrete,” Broaddus said of the Caroline County soil. “It’s going to take some slow rains.”
But for the soybeans, the damage is already done.
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“The consensus of the folks I have seen and spoken with is that irrigation is your friend,” Edwards said. “If you’re not able to irrigate right now, you’re struggling bad.”
Another 2 inches of rain in the next week would get cabbage to its proper size, but the forecast isn’t an optimistic one.
It’s already a challenging time to make a small farm profitable, and added feed costs and irrigation costs are another burden.
“Nature’s just kicking them while they’re down,” Edwards said.
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Ironically, this sunny, calm September weather has allowed a quick, satisfactory harvest of corn in many areas, which fared well from favorable conditions earlier in the summer. Corn yields are down in Southwest Virginia, though, where the dry pattern set in soonest.
The extension service’s reports from southeastern Virginia also show a mostly good peanut harvest that’s being dug up faster than in years past.
Last year, rain often came as too much of a good thing. But no rain at all is worse.
“To begin the year so wet, and to end so dry, our producers in southwestern Virginia have certainly lived two extremes,” said Scott Jessee, extension agent for Russell County.