Snow, rains end eastern drought

A rainy, snowy fall and early winter are fast quenching the remnants of the two-year drought along the East Coast.

The Christmas storm that blew across Pennsylvania, New York and New England was icing on the cake for soil moisture and groundwater watchers, said Randy Durlin, a U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist in Harrisburg, Pa.

Even before the storm, Durlin said, "We've seen great recovery. It's been perfect, it's just been slow rain. The ground didn't freeze, so it soaked in."

Drought designations were already lifted in Pennsylvania and most East Coast states, though concerns remained about low water tables and aquifers in New Jersey, central Virginia and the northern tip of Maine.

"If we keep this pattern going, pretty soon those areas will be going too," said David Miskus, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center. "It took a long time to build this drought. We've actually cut it back pretty quickly."

The long drought lowered wells, slowed waterways, and damaged agriculture, leaving farmers with the poorest corn crop in years and limiting water for livestock.

Many areas declared drought emergencies, limiting such activities as washing cars and watering lawns, and many also banned outdoor burning.

The drought emergency ended in Pennsylvania when Gov. Mark S. Schweiker lifted the designation for three remaining counties Dec. 19.

Monitoring wells showing below-normal water tables in southeastern Pennsylvania have risen rapidly in the last few weeks to normal or above-normal levels, Durlin said.

New Jersey still troubled

A drought emergency remains in effect in New Jersey. The Department of Environmental Protection lifted water restrictions in the northern part of the state but environmental Commissioner Bradley Campbell said southern New Jersey aquifers would take longer to replenish.

"That's one of the last things to recharge," Miskus said. "We'll slowly chisel it away."

Officials in northern Maine also have said it would take several consecutive months of above-normal precipitation to restore groundwater levels to normal.

As it melts, the new 1- to 2-foot blanket of snow from northeastern Pennsylvania to New England will continue to pour water into streams and reservoirs and bring up groundwater levels.

And this year has brought warm Christmastime Pacific Ocean temperatures -- El Nino -- that tend to send storms rolling across the South and up the East Coast throughout the winter, the National Weather Service said.

El Nino brings only selective drought relief, with much of the West remaining parched by extreme drought after four years of little rain.

Moderate drought continues as far east as Michigan, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other weather and environmental agencies.

The Christmas snow was particularly encouraging to officials at the Delaware River Basin Commission.

Catskill Mountain reservoirs that send drinking water to New York City were at record lows last January and after a virtually snowless winter remained low in June going into the dry summer months, said Chris Roberts, a DRBC spokesman.

After the wet fall, the reservoirs were rippling Thursday with 213 billion gallons of water -- 79 percent of capacity compared with a normal of 68 percent in December.

Tributaries were brimming and river flowed strongly.