Drought Warning in Virginia

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has issued a drought watch advisory for southern portions of Virginia and the Eastern Shore. DEQ is using the drought watch to warn the local governments, public water works and individual well owners in the affected areas and to encourage them to minimize nonessential water use, conserve water and develop drought contingency plans. 

Following the guidance in the Virginia Drought Assessment and Response Plan, the Virginia Drought Monitoring Task Force (DMTF) monitors and evaluates hydrologic and water supply conditions for DEQ .  The DMTF is also responsible for making recommendations for Drought Stage declarations.   At their last meeting in December 2021, the DMTF declared a drought watch for southern portions of Virginia and the Eastern Shore.

Drought Indicators and key to Drought Map:
Precipitation (Prcp)
Groundwater Levels (GW)
Streamflow (Flow)
Reservoir Levels (Res)

A drought watch is intended to increase awareness of conditions that are are indicating the potential of a significant drought event and facilitate communities’  preparation for a drought. The next stage after a drought watch would be a “drought warning,” which would be issued if conditions continue to deteriorate. Droughtwarning responses are called for when the onset of a significant drought eventis imminent.

DEQ uses the indicators listed above to gauge the presence and severity of hydrologic drought across the 13 Drought Evaluation Regions.  According to the Virginia DMTF, a work group of state and federal agencies coordinated by DEQ, the primary factors contributing to the advisory are low precipitation across the state over the past 90 days, low stream flows and low groundwater levels compared to previous levels for this time of year.

From their December report:

“Groundwater levels were below normal values for December in drought-indicator wells, with “Groundwater Watch” levels in the Northern Piedmont, Southeast Virginia and Roanoke; “ Groundwater Warning” levels in Northern Virginia; “Groundwater Emergency” levels in the York James and Eastern Shore drought evaluation regions. Seven-day average flows at approximately 80% of stream gauging stations across Virginia were “below normal” as a result of abnormally low rainfall. Levels and storage at major water-supply reservoirs remained within normal ranges.”

As can be seen in the status map above that is the conditions as of January 3, 2022, though only the southeast and southcentral regions of Virginia are in a “Watch” condition, The northern region which includes Fauquier, Prince William, Loudoun and Fairfax have groundwater levels in the “Warning” range. The Northern Virginia well number 19 is below the 10% percentile, but there is still time.