By the end of last summer we were something like 9" -12" below average for our precipitation for the first 9 months in an area that usually gets 35-38" annually. I think that we went from mid-April or early May until September with less than 1/2" of rain. Classified as severe drought conditions, especially difficult for those on wells in shallow glacial-deposit aquifers. This season has been wet, so aquifers and reservoirs are back to normal.

August is arguably our driest month and this year is no exception. In my immediate location we have received only .04" of rain this month.......average is 1.03". And there is no measurable precipitation in sight. Would not expect to see much until late September at the earliest........often not until well into October.

All in all, a very typical summer weather pattern for us - very dry (recurring drought conditions) and moderately warm.......not necessarily hot (70's to low 80's).

Since .8" is average for July, having no measurable precipitation is not exactly atypical. And we had one of the wettest springs on record going into a prolonged dry stretch. Even the meterologists do not see this as grossly atypical: "Cliff Mass, professor of meteorology, points out it’s not unusual for little rain to fall in Seattle during the summer, which is the dry season. “We are only about an inch below normal for the 12-week period,” he said. Through the end of July, Seattle was having its second wettest year on record. “So in terms of real impacts, the lack of summer precipitation doesn’t mean that much,” Mass added."

A lot of my rhodies are wilting. Quite a bit more than usual. They're in mostly shade on high, dry, light ground. The ones in heavier, wetter ground are doing fine. It's been real dry with no significant rain for about 70 days and no rain in sight. I've never seen it this dry for such a long time, even native plants are dying.

Our July was dry with almost no rain all month and June not much better. But since the beginning of August, we've had over 7" rain with the rains spread apart several days to a week between each rain of 1"+ to 2"+ each time. I've watered very little the last 2 weeks and that being mostly the newly transplanted items. Talk of rain again on Friday.

The temps have been cooler than normal during that time but today we're back in the low 80's & sunny so it won't take long to dry out with our sandy soil.

I happen to research the loam type soils specific to my lot after I noticed that they where drying so damn quick. It was flagged as fast draining, low water holding capability, not prime farmland. Should have done a bit more homework as I thought it was going to be a richer soil with more water holding capability based on the lush activity going on at the back half of the lot.

Luckily its been fairly cool. I'll have to dig up June precip totals so I'm not going off perception however June was well below the 4" average (and so flipping windy) and July fell short of the 4.11" average at 2.88". Nothing terrible compared to others.

In the last 8 years that I've been paying more attention to rain totals I've never experienced a rain event of more than 2.5". I can't tell you how the mood in the household just elevates when we get 1" or more. I can't imagine 7" over one week. It must be special! lol

It's been real dry with no significant rain for about 70 days and no rain in sight. I've never seen it this dry for such a long time, even native plants are dying.

Yep.

'I can't imagine 7" over one week. It must be special! lol'

Oh, what I meant was 7" total over the 3 week period.

1"+ to 2"+ each event. :-)

A couple of years ago, we got 4-3/4" all in a 24 hr. period. There were flooded basements in town because the storm drains couldn't handle it. Water stood on the streets and anywhere there was a low area for a week.

It's been fairly wet and cool here in Massachusetts this summer.

Hot, dry Augusts are pretty common in the Appalachians, but not this yr. The height of corn is impressive, and soybeans are waist high -- as high as I've ever seen them.

Has not been a hot summer at all in most of the East or Southeast. More locally (Mid Atlantic), it's been quite humid and wet (which is typical of August here) but wouldn't say cool. It's actually been helpful in reversing two very dry seasons. Interesting to see drought once again (3rd year in a row) a feature for extreme Northeast (coastal Maine). And yet again, the anomalous heat and drought seem to reside in the West (Cali., Pacific NW, and this year, the Upper Plains (ND, SD, and Montana) where drought has been persistent). For me, this has been the longest period (from Spring till present) of "normal" weather that I can remember in YEARS! So glad the awful drought here was broken finally. Vegetation is lush, no risk of wildfires; in fact, difficult to start a campfire, creeks flowing with water. I love the autumn season but it can feature both endless stretches of beautiful, sunny, dry, Mediterranean days of "Indian Summer" (that can linger well into November) to the deluges of tropical storms and worse. There is a certain ominous character to the calmness of September weather, as I remember my mother referring to it as "hurricane season".

Here is the latest Drought Monitor (to be updated tomorrow, btw).

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu

Was at a local forested park today where I saw a long established (~chest high) native growth of Gaultheria shallon - characteristic of well-drained sites or positions, useful as an indicator of such conditions - going brown in the dry weather.

August here will end up about 1 - 1.5" above normal for rainfall, and ~1.5 - 2F cooler than average.

We had...winter and spring moderate drought. Wet enough to erase the drought by June 1. Dry enough in June to see Abnormally Dry come back.

Wet July and August. Grass looks like it does in May.

For those in the US, waterdata.usgs.gov is a good site to check rain gauges near your house. For my part of Atlanta, 3.14 inches for August. Compared to a year ago, August 2016 was 2.05 inches. Our average August is 3.67 inches. Our rainy season is usually late winter and early spring. Last fall, which is our drier season (but not totally dry, usually) we had a 40 day stretch with no rain at all. This was highly unusual. The watershed of the dam-controlled lake (and subsequent river) that supplies most of Atlanta's drinking water is still experiencing a moderate drought at last check, so we are still on water restrictions from last fall.

whaas - according to this link Wisconsin had its wettest Jan thru July ever: https://forestrynews.blogs.govdelivery.com/category/forest-health-news/

WA state is not even listed officially as under drought conditions.....just 'abnormally dry'; the same rating it gets pretty much every year at this time. Coming off of the wettest spring in record, western Washington is still 8" above average year to date rainfall totals for the end of August. And that is after a record breaking long stretch of zero measurable precipitation. So we're not exactly in crisis mode here yet......or shouldn't be except for those alarmists who panic at any weather extremes. We are not anywhere close to being at the same level we were 2015....the last official state drought.

I knew we were out of any drought but did not know how much. In tonights paper it had us up more than 20" for the year to date compared to average annual rainfall.

Stats for BWI airport (nearest major weather station), yes, that's a HIGH of 68 on the 29th!

Here's the common jewelweed all around my place instead of its usual restriction on the border stream floodplain. Needs alot of water & getting it this yr:

August here tends to be our driest summer month. This year, June was much drier, July was downright wet.

Hi Dave, spring was quite wet for majority of WI.

My point was that county data and definitely state data is not indicative to what one might get in their yard so its tough from a gardening perspective to see who has dry conditions for these types of summaries or even the drought monitor.

Some areas of WI where getting 6" of rain at a crack so it was boosting totals significantly. For example some areas of southern WI got 10" of rain (flooding) in July whereas I was at 2.8". I'll take that any July eitherway.

This isn't quite where I'm at but as you can see we're just shy of 19" precip (I'm even less) through August. A far cry from any record precipitation. We likely won't hit our average annual precip of 35" by end of year. So in my mind its actually a abnormally dry year for my direct area.

For perspective I took zip code 48105 in MI and it shows 21.4" of precip but the drought monitor says its abnormally dry.

Its all relative!

"It's all relative!" So true. And timing can make a huge difference.

August here has been cooler than average, so the dry spells this month haven't had as much of an impact as they could have. As beng noted above, jewelweed is somewhat of an indicator species, and in my yard it has done quite well this year. Hummingbirds are loving it.

"Abnormal" does not equate to "typical". They wouldn't call it abnormal if they thought it was typical. However, in recent years we may be seeing a new normal that has kicked in already, because crappy springs and blazing summers becoming routine - by 2050 - was predicted for this region by the U.W. weather center some years ago.

Meanwhile it's not alarmist to note how many failing examples of long established trees and shrubs there are in local plantings and wild plant communities. These aren't listening to weather statistics. Nor are the wilting ones in the two collections I maintain having to be watered over and over, in rapid succession, as though I had done no watering previously.