Hide caption Part of the Yantic River near McGrath Lane in Lebanon.
[Aaron Flaum/ NorwichBulletin.com] All the rain we’ve had recently has eased the drought in Eastern Connecticut considerably Drought conditions in the far easternmost part of the state have lifted, weather experts say, thanks in part to a spate of recent spring rains.
In Bristol, for example, the reservoir is at 90 percent capacity, DePrest said.
Statewide, reservoirs averaged 93 percent full in March and 97 percent in mid-April, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb., while groundwater levels are also near normal.
While recent rainfall has helped, DePrest said conditions could change again quickly.
“I want to caution, if we go right into a hot, dry summer, we could be right back where we were,” he said.
Last year, those totals for the same time frame stood at 12.71 inches.
“As we started this year, we were running significantly below normal,” Thompson said of regional rainfall totals in January.
Three months ago, 100 percent of the state was experiencing drought conditions at some level, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The Connecticut River is continuing to run low, Furbush said, with levels of 3.6 feet recorded at a measuring site in Haddam.