Drought impacting many in the Capital Region

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — We have been talking about how much of the Capital Region and Western New England has been under drought conditions over the last few weeks and it is not only impacting people’s livelihoods in terms of farming but also now their way of life.

If it seems like it hasn’t rained for a while, you would be correct, the reality is is that most of the region is now seeing rainfall deficits approaching 2″ or more since the beginning of September. Stephen DiRienzo, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Albany explained to us just how significant this is. “There hasn’t been a lot of rain in the last two weeks over the eastern part of the state,” DiRienzo said.

He compares this fall to last year when we saw similarly dry conditions across the area which ultimately lead to increased wildfire concerns across the region. Unfortunately, our current drought conditions could bring lasting impacts that could take months or even up to a year to fully recover from. He reminds us that even if we were to receive multiple inches of rain over many rain events or one big one, we would not fully recover from the drought immediately, it will take time for the impacts to be mitigated. And as much as we like a quiet Tropical Atlantic season, we do rely on the rain from tropical systems and their remnants to make up for otherwise dry summer conditions. So far, we have yet to see any tropical moisture make it to the northeast.

With the dramatic lack of rain this season, it has had a big impact on those who rely on natural well water like Russell Albertson and his family in New Brunswick, while he says their well hasn’t run totally dry, they don’t have a whole lot of extra water to waste.

Albertson and his wife have lived at their home for the last twelve years and they say they have never seen their well this low, and are taking conservation measures to be sure they don’t run out of water anytime soon.

“Short showers, we are not out of water, but, we are significantly low. So yeah, Definitely cutting it back, no laundry here in the house,” Albertson Said. He went on to say that they are hoping for some relief in the short term. “You know, two or three inches probably would help that’s for sure. I mean, we don’t need a flood, but a nice few days of steady rain would probably be perfect.”

Although the growing season is just about over for most, the impacts from the lack of rain will be felt throughout the Autumn season. That does include activities such as apple picking and other fall fun! But how is the crop looking after all the drought? We spoke to Jeremy Knight, owner of J.L. Knight & Son Family Farm in Burnt Hills and he says that the crop is about 50% of average, but he states apple farms are not the only ones impacted.

“You know, it’s not just the fruit specific, I mean people in dairy industry are going to have problems, I think with their corn not getting the tonnage per acre they need,” Knight said, “They need more acres to get the tonnage for their feed for the winter and then their haylage production has been way down because they didn’t get the regrowth on the alfalfa for the haylage crop.”

Knight tells me apple farms in particular had a rough start that with the cooler and wetter spring, they had issues dealing with fungus and apple scab and they were hoping when we got to the summer months, things would level out. However, it went from bad to worse.

Knight says, “Very wet spring, April, May and even June it rained practically every day. This is one of the driest years I’ve seen in quite a while to the point where trees are dropping leaves and there’s some fruit drop.” You should not let this discourage you from supporting your favorite local apple farm this fall as knight says, they may be lacking in some varieties, but they still have many apples to offer this season, unfortunately it just wont last as long as last year.