https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/04/21/drought-conditions-pollen-dc-virginia-maryland/



Virtually the entire D.C. and Baltimore region is experiencing moderate drought, according to new data from the U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday, a week after drought conditions crept into portions of the area for the first time since 2019.

Soil moisture levels have dropped particularly low, dipping below the fifth percentile across most of the area. The dry weather has helped fuel outdoor fires, contributed to a punishing pollen season, decreased river flow rates and started to impact crops.

Precipitation is currently running about 5 inches below normal since the start of the year. Jeremy Geiger, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service office serving the Washington region, said the current drought is similar to drought conditions in 2017, which peaked with moderate to severe drought in late February and March, in that both were part of a prolonged period of below-normal precipitation.

“The April of 2017 drought was pretty long-lived and originally began back in October of 2016 and continued through the middle parts of May of 2017,” Geiger wrote in an email. The drought in 2019, which began in September, “was more of a flash drought that occurred due to a really dry 2½-month period,” he added. “The 2019 drought ended due to a large rainfall event that produced almost six inches of precipitation toward the end of October of 2019.”

So far, the main impacts of the current drought have been to increase fire risk and exacerbate a pollen season that started early with dual peaks in February and April. The Potomac River and local farmers are starting to feel some impacts as well.