Here you see one of our small streams in the woods this morning. It was stone dry for months prior to this week.
Some good rain in Maine during the past week very slightly improved it and other abnormally dry conditions here. As you may be able to see from the image, this mossy-banked stream actually had a trickle of flowing water and one or two small pools containing about half an inch of water. The recent rain even encouraged some mushrooms to emerge and try to sow some seed:
Nonetheless, today’s federal drought report shows that the Maine coast and almost the entire southern half of the State remain abnormally dry, in moderate drought, or in extreme drought as of Tuesday’s data:
The harm that this dryness has been doing is difficult to assess. What it will do to New England’s fall foliage and the tourism thereof is one of the questions to be pondered. (Photographs taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 24 [mushrooms] and 25 [stream], 2022.)