It’s hard to remember after a winter that had snow on the ground for months and a recent stretch of damp weather, but all of New Hampshire is still in various states of drought and it’s time to start being a little cautious about outdoor fires.
A look at weather data shows why: Total precipitation at Concord Municipal Airport, the state’s official rain gauge for the National Weather Service, has been below the long-term average every month since last June. Total precipitation over those nine months – meaning rainfall and the water content of melted snowfall – is a full foot below the average, totaling 20.9 inches compared to an average 32.9 inches.
On Tuesday, New Hampshire Division of Forest and Lands began its annual practice of listing the state’s fire danger level every day. Since it was raining throughout the state the risk level was “low” but that can change quickly if temperatures rise and the winds pick up, the two factors that dry out the environment and cause wildfires to spread.
As of April 2, the National Weather Service says Hillsborough and Cheshire counties are “abnormally dry,” the lowest measure on the five-point drought scale, while the rest of the state is either moderate or severe drought, which are the second and third steps on the scale.
Maine is in worse shape; the entire state is in severe drought with a small stretch of “extreme drought” along the coast south of Portland.
The daily fire forecast is used by local fire departments to set their rules, such as whether and when outdoor burning is permitted. To see the daily forecast from New Hampshire Division of Forest and Lands, go to www.nhdfl.dncr.nh.gov/forest-protection/daily-fire-danger
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I keep trying to tell people that we are experiencing a major drought, but they won’t believe me. My garden is built over the top of large boulders with the average soil depth in a good year of 10 – 12 inches. As the water table goes down the soil sinks but the boulders don’t. Each year for the last three years my soil depth has decreased and when i measured it last fall it was only five inches over the boulders closest to the surface with the average for the whole garden at about 8 -10 inches. This is in spite of the fact that we had 11 plus inches of rain in April last year. I have had a garden in this location for more than thirty years and rock location is by rototiller.