RICHMOND, Va. — All of Virginia remains under some form of drought advisory, with 10 of 13 drought regions under a drought warning and the remaining three under a drought watch.
A rainy Wednesday across the Commonwealth offered little relief to Virginia's ongoing drought conditions, according to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
Andrew Noyes, a member of the DEQ's Drought Monitoring Task Force, said the rainfall fell well short of what is needed to address a moisture deficit that has been building since August 2025.
"A storm like we're seeing the next couple of days that brings about half an inch of precipitation to a lot of the state helps, but it doesn't erase that 10 inch deficit," Noyes said.
Noyes said the prolonged shortfall has reduced water levels in major reservoirs and waterways throughout Virginia.
"All major watersheds in the Commonwealth are seen much below normal stream flow levels, and a lot of localities and individuals rely on water intakes in those streams," Noyes said.
The DEQ has issued drought advisories across all 13 of the state's designated drought regions.
"We've issued a drought warning advisory status for 10 of our 13 drought regions in the state, and the remaining three are on drought watch advisory," Noyes said.
With summer approaching, Noyes warned that conditions could worsen as water demand increases and natural replenishment continues to lag.
"We're already starting off with less water in the ground that's going to start getting pulled out as plants have their leaves come out," Noyes said. "There's going to be increasing temperatures, which means more water is going to be evaporating. It will be more, more water withdrawals taking place, so that'll put more stress on all the water resources we have here."
Noyes said the typical spring rainfall patterns that would normally help recover from a winter deficit have not materialized.
"We're not seeing those spring showers like we would hope to. We're getting a little bit, but not enough to really make headway into our large scale, longer term deficit," Noyes said.
The DEQ serves in an advisory role to individual localities and encourages residents to reduce water use when asked to do so by local officials. Noyes said individual actions can add up.
"It's a every drop counts, kind of situation here where, if everyone's making a small impact, collectively, that has a much larger impact," Noyes said.
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