Will it ever rain again? Parts of NJ now in ‘extreme’ drought

These days, it seems like you can't even buy a raindrop in New Jersey.

Consider this: in the entire month of October at Atlantic City International Airport, 0.02 inches of rain was recorded. Normal rainfall for that same period is 4.14". Some quick math shows we received less than 1% of the rainfall that should have gotten.

September wasn't much better with 0.56" for the whole month.

In fact, the last time we had a good soaking here in South Jersey was back on August 26th when we had 1.43" of rain.

The result? Lots of people are beginning to notice that creeks and streams are almost completely dry, ponds are running very low, and grass and brush are crispy and brown.

Sadly, things aren't going to get better anytime soon.

Drought conditions worsen in South Jersey

Thursday morning, officials with NOAA updated the U.S. Drought Monitor and much of South Jersey is now in "extreme" drought conditions. That includes practically all of Atlantic County and most of Burlington and Ocean Counties, which just happens to be where there are over a million acres of pine trees.

Burn ban continues in New Jersey

With such bad drought conditions in New Jersey, the danger of forest fires is, obviously, very high. Thursday morning, South Jersey was shown in an "extreme" danger while the rest of the state was "very high."

Crews have been out over the past 24 hours battling growing blazes in both Ocean and Burlington Counties.

Stage 3 campfire restrictions are in place for the entire state — no charcoal fires are allowed and all fires in wooded areas are prohibited unless contained in an elevated stove using only propane, natural gas, gas, or electricity.

When will it rain again in New Jersey?

At this point, we really need a lot of rain. We need the rain that comes with a tropical storm or hurricane to even begin putting a dent in this drought. Unfortunately, the weather pattern that hasn't allowed any normal showers to move through would also prevent a tropical system from coming up the coast (notice how any hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico recently have all moved out into the Atlantic instead of coming this way).

The monthly outlook for November from NOAA shows things aren't likely to improve anytime soon.

Looking further into the future, we will likely not see above-normal rainfall over the next 90 days (through the end of January).