Ohio’s historic drought of ‘24

By Matt Reese

As of the end of August, the U.S. Drought Monitor described around 1.32% of the state in D4-Exceptional Drought. This area was contained in Meigs and Athens counties and is the first time that D4 has been depicted on the U.S. Drought Monitor map in Ohio since it was created in 2000. At the same time, the level of D3-Extreme Drought increased to cover about 15% of the state, with 25% of Ohio experiencing D2-Severe Drought conditions or worse and almost 75% of the state is experiencing at least abnormally dry conditions, according to Aaron Wilson, an Atmospheric Scientist at The Ohio State University holding a joint appointment as a Research Scientist at the Byrd Polar & Climate Research Center and Ohio State University Extension.

“This has been a long-term thing. About 55% of the state was abnormally dry back on June 18. That was right after that extreme heat wave where we had about 8 days above 90 degrees there.… Continue reading