LANSING, Mich. — Dry weather kept spreading across Michigan this fall, and the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, issued Nov. 12 with data through Nov. 10, shows just 21 percent of the state free of any dryness or drought label.
A week earlier that share stood at 37 percent, so roughly another sixth of the state slipped into abnormally dry territory or worse in seven days. Back in August, 64 percent of Michigan was clear of any drought designation.
The Upper Peninsula is the hardest hit. Every part of the U.P. now carries at least an abnormally dry rating, and most of it sits somewhere between moderate and exceptional drought, with only a slice of the Keweenaw Peninsula rated as merely abnormally dry. In the western U.P., severe and extreme drought cover most of the land, and nearly all of Gogebic County is in exceptional drought, the most serious level on the map. The region had never been rated in exceptional drought since the monitor began around 2000.
Lower Michigan is drying out too. Moderate drought covers about 10 percent more of the Lower Peninsula than it did a week ago, stretching in a wider band across the middle of the state. Moderate drought now blankets Saginaw County entirely, along with the bulk of Genesee County and much of the Thumb.
Rainfall explains the trend. Over the 30 days ending Nov. 13, nearly the whole state got less rain than normal, and many areas of the Lower Peninsula ran two to three inches short. Only a small pocket of the western U.P. came in about an inch above normal.
The dry conditions have already shown up in the woods. Three large fires, most of them started by lightning, burned in the U.P. during October, and drought made them burn deeper and take longer to put out.
Homeowners with newly planted trees, shrubs and especially evergreens are being urged to give them a deep weekly watering until the ground freezes, which could be well into December this year, so they do not dry out and die over the winter.
From the HERE City State Desk.
Filed under: Lansing MI Weather News
