ROANOKE, Va. – As of the Thursday, September 12, 2019 update of the drought monitor, parts of Montgomery, Floyd and Franklin Counties are officially in a drought. This is the first time that any part of area has been in a drought since April 10 of 2018, when parts of Southside were in one.
Areas in the yellow on the map above can more-or-less consider themselves in a 'drought watch.'
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Outside of some Wednesday's storms, rain has been hard to come by around here. The worry is that we follow this pattern for the next month. October 15 starts the fall wildfire season, as the wind tends to pick up more this time of year.
There are five levels to the drought monitor:
D0 - Abnormally Dry
D1 - Moderate
D2 - Severe
D3 - Extreme
D4 - Exceptional
Currently, most of the area is in the D0, with areas in beige in the D1 category. In the next seven days, it will be hard for us to get any widespread rain to come through. However, we are tracking a disturbance in the tropics. We will let you know if that shows any promise of some relieving rain.