Extreme drought expands in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine

LEBANON — An extreme drought affecting New Hampshire has nearly doubled in size and spilled over into Vermont and Maine, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

“… Very little rain fell across the Northeast region during the past week,” meteorologists Adam Allgood and Brad Rippey wrote in a National Drought Summary report that was published Tuesday.

There is little relief in the forecast, according to a seven-day outlook for Southern Grafton County published by the National Weather Service. A 30% chance of rain showers is predicted for next Wednesday.

A new map, which was released by the U.S. Drought Monitor Thursday, showed that “extreme drought” conditions now encompass the majority of Grafton County and about half of Carroll County. Additionally, the slivers of extreme conditions in Sullivan and Merrimack counties have expanded.

Small portions of Windsor and Orange counties in Vermont that border New Hampshire also have been upgraded to an “extreme drought,” as is a southern sliver of Coos County — New Hampshire’s northernmost county. All of those areas had previously been categorized as a “severe drought,” in a map that was released Sept. 11.

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The extreme ranking is the fourth highest on a five-level scale, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a joint project between the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Possible impacts of extreme drought conditions include: Major crop or pasture losses, and   widespread water shortages or restrictions, according to the National Weather Service.

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