| 3/16/2026 | CT-NH-43 | CT | New Haven |
Moderately Wet
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General Awareness
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| Soil is moderately wet from snowpack melt and recent rains. Minor flooding of nearby field has persisted and nearby rivers are at high levels. |
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| 3/16/2026 | CT-NL-19 | CT | New London |
Near Normal
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General Awareness
Tourism & Recreation
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| Except for a balmy spring day Tuesday, the week was cold & windy, keeping people mainly indoors. Song birds flit or sit, spring bulbs are sprouting and squirrels are everywhere. There's hope for spring yet. |
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| 3/16/2026 | ID-OW-2 | ID | Owyhee |
Mildly Dry
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Agriculture
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| The soil conditions are nearly ideal to begin planting fruit trees. The soil temperature 6 inches down was 50 degrees yesterday. |
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| 3/16/2026 | ME-SM-3 | ME | Somerset |
Near Normal
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General Awareness
Agriculture
Plants & Wildlife
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| 0.51" gauge, 2.8" new snow, remnant snow patches <10% ground cover. Mx 71.0°/Mn 21.5°. Sap run underway. Low volume spring runoff. No bud break to date. |
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| 3/16/2026 | MN-HN-128 | MN | Hennepin |
Moderately Dry
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General Awareness
Business & Industry
Energy
Plants & Wildlife
Relief, Response & Restrictions
Society & Public Health
Tourism & Recreation
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| After a week of warm temperatures that started with a high of 60°, then slowly dropping through the 50’s and 40’s, the month of March tricked us again with a Winter Storm turning to a Blizzard (Warning). Early predictions had threatened us with a possible 14-18”, though at the time of this writing, we are maybe approaching 10”. Strong Winds have kicked in causing blowing and drifting, which will continue through most of tonight.
At any rate, we’ll see how this affects the dryness here, as It seems the ground had finally thawed a little, so maybe some of the melt will be able so soak in.
Forecast: Possible sub-zero Temperature on Monday, then climbing into the 40’s mid-week to close the week with low 50’s; Partly to Mostly Cloudy skies with random Fog; No Precipitation expected other than a chance of a couple inches of Snow on Tuesday. |
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| 3/16/2026 | MN-NB-7 | MN | Nobles |
Mildly Dry
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General Awareness
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| Although we got a substantial amount of rain-snowfall amounting to .94 (most for several months) we are still on the drought side. |
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| 3/16/2026 | NE-DG-63 | NE | Douglas |
Mildly Dry
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General Awareness
Plants & Wildlife
Water Supply & Quality
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| Above average high temperatures continued with a high temperature this week of 79 degrees on Monday March 9. All other days except one were also well above normal. Soil temperatures in the 60s and 70s by midafternoon continued. The soil is dry and powdery where there isn't much vegetation. The grass is starting to green up but still has a lot of brown. Most trees and shrubs and perennial flowers are still dormant, except for blooming crocuses and my Canadian choke cherry tree with leaf buds beginning to swell. We only received 0.14 inch of rain this week and the ground is drying up again. Conditions are mildly dry. March precipitation has totaled only 0.37 inch (0.53 inch below normal, or 41 percent of normal). Precipitation here for the year is now 2.22 inch, which is 0.46 inch below normal (83 percent of normal). Precipitation for the water year is 1.96 inch below normal (75 percent of normal). Plants and wildlife. Bird visits to the heated bird bath remained steady this week due to the limited sources of water. Approximately 25 species of birds (about 150 to 160 birds visit each day). Water Supply Water level in Standing Bear Lake (approximately 0.2 mile to the east of here) is approximately 2 feet below normal. Area creeks and ponds are also about 2 feet below normal. |
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| 3/16/2026 | NY-WY-11 | NY | Wyoming |
Near Normal
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General Awareness
Agriculture
Plants & Wildlife
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| Cloudy and cool with gusty winds and morning snow, then cloudy and cold overnight with gusty winds. The high temperature was around forty eight degrees, and the low around thirty nine degrees Fahrenheit. Songbirds are eating a feederful every two days. More small flocks of Canadian Geese are present. Crocuses are blooming. More flocks of small black birds, Red-winged Blackbirds, Grackles and song birds are appearing. The local intermittent stream and nearby trout stream are flowing at spring levels. Some liquid manure is being spread. |
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| 3/16/2026 | NC-CW-59 | NC | Chowan |
Mildly Dry
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General Awareness
Agriculture
Plants & Wildlife
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| With .38" of rain this past week, the total for March is .71". The shock of going from 75 to 32 degrees in less than 12 hours that resulted in a heavy frost last week has not slowed the growth of winter weeds and the continuing budding of oak and pine trees. Azalea is budding. Maple flowering is complete. Some daffodils have finished blooming. Forsythia is in bloom now. Clary sage growth has really increased since last week, and winter wheat still looks good. Water levels in area field ditches has dropped, with some having no standing water. Soil moisture in the top layers is still good. Some early plowing has started on drier sites. |
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| 3/16/2026 | OH-HM-24 | OH | Hamilton |
Moderately Wet
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General Awareness
Plants & Wildlife
Society & Public Health
Water Supply & Quality
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| 1.28 inches of rain in the past 7 days and 4.67 inches in the first half of March. This is approximately 200% of normal. Streams are back in their banks and a couple warm, windy days have helped surface drying some but swales are still wet and there is still some standing water. |
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| 3/16/2026 | VA-RNC-3 | VA | Roanoke (city) |
Moderately Dry
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General Awareness
Plants & Wildlife
Water Supply & Quality
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| The first half of March (1-16) has been somewhat drier than normal with 1.51" versus NOAA normal of 1.85". The water year (Oct. 1-Mar. 16) deficit has increased to 5.75" with a total of 11.53" or only 67% of the normal. A bigger story was the extraordinary warmth--the first 15 days of March were the warmest on record at KROA climate site (since 1912) and top 3 at all five regional climate stations. At KROA temps ran +10.9F for the period at 56.8F, 0.5F above the previous 'record' back in 1921. Spring is well underway with many trees and shrubs flowering. A strong cold front will cross the area today with forecast temps. dropping into the low 20s, will not be easy on vegetation.
The daily (3/15/26) mean flow for the USGS gage on the Roanoke River at Roanoke at 258 cfs, in the Below Normal category. The cumulative flow (as of 3/15) since the start of the water year remains just below the 25th percentile of total flow for period. Carvins Cove local water supply reservoir (as of 3/15) was at -10.0 feet below full pond a -0.3 ft. drop in the past two weeks (75.7% of capacity, +6.0%). The US Drought Monitor (USDM) map valid as of 3/10/26 showed very little change in the past two weeks with Moderate Drought (D1) across the upper Roanoke Valley and Severe Drought (D2) over much of central VA. The NWS Climate Prediction Center (CPC) 6-10 and 8-14 day outlooks (as of 3/15/26) show an extraordinary upper level ridge building across the western CONUS with extreme warmth likely across the southwest and central states. In the East, a very dry period is forecast with closer to normal temperatures.
Per the latest from the CPC (3/9/26), La Niña remains present in the tropical Pacific with a 3-month Relative Oceanic Niño Index (RONI) of -0.9 for the DJF 3-month period. Consensus forecasts continue to indicate a transition to ENSO-neutral in the next few months and then possibly to El Niño by mid-summer although the impact on precipitation patterns remains unclear.
Will show a one-category decline in conditions for this update to Moderately Dry as spring is well underway and the longer term precipitation deficits and warmth maintain pressure on water supplies. |
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