MAPS: Week-by-week look tracking Virginia's drought

This week's drought monitor was the first in a while that showed no improvement.The lack of recent rain allowed the severe drought and the very dry categories to tick up a little. The amount of the state under no category has dropped to 45%.Severe to extreme drought continues across far southern Virginia, and areas southwest of Farmville.Photo by: WTVR via U.S. Drought Monitor

Weekly Update Thursday, Oct. 22, 2206. After seeing significant improvement since the summer, there were just a few minor changes over the past week in the updated drought monitor.Far southern Virginia, near and south of Highway 58, remains in a severe to extreme drought. Areas between Farmville and Danville remain in an extreme drought.Almost half of the state is now near normal.Photo by: WTVR via U.S. Drought Monitor

Weekly Update Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026.Photo by: WTVR via U.S. Drought Monitor

Weekly Update Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026.Over the previous week, there were areas that saw significant rainfall. However, this rain did not target the hardest-hit regions of the drought.While severe and extreme drought areas across southern Virginia remained unchanged, both the moderate drought and very dry categories dropped by 5% each.That total 10% change now puts 39% of the state near normal for rainfall.Expected rainfall for the first weekend of October should hit the drought areas.Photo by: WTVR via U.S. Drought Monitor

Weekly Update Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026.Severe and extreme drought areas across southern Virginia remained unchanged since last week. A small section of very dry locations got upgraded into moderate drought status.There is now 29% of the state with near-normal rainfall.Photo by: WTVR via U.S. Drought Monitor

Weekly Update Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026.Drought conditions remained steady or improved for the entire state.While extreme drought continues southwest of Farmville to near Danville, that region did not increase in size.Both the moderate drought and the very dry areas lessened slightly.The amount of Virginia no longer in any drought classification increased from 24% last week to 28% this week.Photo by: WTVR via U.S. Drought Monitor

Weekly Update Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026.While the majority of central and eastern Virginia remained either near normal or a bit dry, drought conditions worsened for areas far south and southwest of Richmond.The region of extreme drought has increased from just southwest of Farmville down to Danville.Moderate to isolated severe drought conditions continued near the I-81 corridor.Severe to extreme drought conditions affect a lot of far southern Virginia, from west of Norfolk through areas south of Lynchburg.Photo by: WTVR via U.S. Drought Monitor