May 2026 Obs/Discussion

[kdxken]

13 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Man the drought talk is out of control. Everything is pretty much at normal levels like the Quabbin. The same areas in supposed moderate drought. 

Stupidest thing I've ever seen.  Only thing I can think of is they're going by what we've had recently not what was there to begin with.

[CoastalWx]

20 minutes ago, kdxken said:

Stupidest thing I've ever seen.  Only thing I can think of is they're going by what we've had recently not what was there to begin with.

It seems to be heavily weighted on what has fallen. Mother Nature doesn’t care if it was dry in the fall. We had enough precip in the winter to help fill the rivers and reservoirs since the ground does not absorb anything that time of year. 

[weatherwiz]

49 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Man the drought talk is out of control. Everything is pretty much at normal levels like the Quabbin. The same areas in supposed moderate drought. 

Some people must think we live in the Amazon or something. You'd think we're supposed to average like 70+" of rain a year

[jbenedet]

Another nice day 70 in view

[Layman]

That warm day last week flipped the switch here and all the birds flew in. We were waiting for the hummingbirds and orioles to arrive and they did en masse. 
Caught this neat dark copper oriole coming in for a snack this morning:

[Typhoon Tip]

Fwiw, the US drought monitor folk derive their assessment as a hybridization of empirical data, together with 'expert opinions'.   It's referred to as a "convergence of evidence" approach ...but, the opinion end of it does offer a subjective implication.   

According to drought gov source, the empirical data inputs come from pretty basic metrics.  Soil moisture, water levels in streams and lakes, snow cover ...  seasonal melt water runoff ..etc., in aggregate.    These are used by USDM, homogenized with the human/expert layer of input, which comes from both meteorologists and climatologists of the NDMC, NOAA and USDA, who take turns as lead author of the maps we see on the web site.