The Exponent Telegram
LINCOLN, Neb. — For the first time since the U.S. Drought Monitor was created in 1999, part of West Virginia has been listed under exceptional drought.
The Drought Monitor released its latest map on Thursday morning, and parts of Mason, Putnam, Jackson, Roane, Wirt and Wood counties were listed under extreme drought conditions. The map included data through 8 a.m. Tuesday, so the impact from the blistering heat blanketing the Mountain State this week isn’t part of Thursday’s map.
Parts or all of several counties were listed as being under exceptional drought: Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel, Tyler, Pleasants, Wood, Mason, Putnam, Cabell, Wayne, Lincoln, Logan, Boone, Kanawha, Roane, Wirt, Calhoun, Ritchie, Gilmer, Braxton, Webster, Pocahontas, Randolph, Upshur, Lewis, Doddridge, Harrison, Barbour, Taylor, Marion and Tucker counties.
Most of the rest of the state was under severe drought, while part of the Eastern Panhandle was under moderate drought, and small tips of the far north and southwest were abnormally dry.
“According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 100% of West Virginia’s topsoil and subsoil moisture was rated short or very short (dry or very dry), and 92% of the pastures and rangeland were in poor to very poor condition,” reported the Drought Monitor, produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
