Lorton precipitation amounts Feb 4 - 10, 2013

Last summer there was a drought over much of the country.  As you can see from the chart, as of February 5 large swaths of the middle of the country were still dry.  From the map it appears that Virginia has improved since the summer.  Indeed, the color map of departure from normal since October 1 for Maryland and Virginia shows Lorton as zero (meaning we’re right where we should be) and some of the surrounding areas just a bit wetter than average.  Looking at the data, however, since October 1 we’ve had 15.33” of rain, but much of that (7.87”) fell on just three days and so didn’t really replenish the soil.  We’ll watch how this evolves this spring - my school age daughters are hoping for a low melting two foot snowstorm, probably just so they get to stay home.

Last week and here, my rain gauge in Lorton recorded the following precipitation at 6am on the day indicated for the previous 24 hours: