Queens grounds are parched

 

 Queens Chronicle

With the borough just recovering from the latest heat wave (and bracing itself for the next one), it may not be difficult to fathom that Queens is in a moderate drought — or at the very least, is approaching one.

The U.S. Drought Monitor says that Queens County is in a moderate drought, and, in parts of southern Queens, a severe one. College Point environmentalist and visiting scientist and faculty member at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution James Cervino characterized it as “the worst ever” in Queens.

That is barely an exaggeration — Matthew Wunsch, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the Chronicle that between June 1 and Aug. 28, the area surrounding JFK Airport received 5.14 inches of rainfall. That’s the area’s second lowest level since 1949 for that period. The area surrounding LaGuardia Airport has gotten 8.09 inches of rainfall over those 12-odd weeks, the 14th lowest since 1940.

But the New York City Department of Environmental Protection has not gone so far as to declare an official drought.

“Things are certainly dry here in New York City. We have not had a lot of rain this summer — the ground is brittle and everything is pretty brown,” said Ted Timbers, the DEP’s communications director. “But New York City gets its water supply from protected reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains in the Hudson Valley.” Those, he said, have an “ample” amount of water in them, adding that the agency is monitoring the supply and the forecast closely.

But as the borough prepares for hurricane season, the first since Hurricane Ida took 11 lives in Queens and damaged countless homes a year ago to the day, the drought may be cause for concern, and may lend itself to flooding.

“You’d think that because the ground is dry, that it can actually absorb more water,” Wunsch said. “But dry ground, it actually becomes less porous, and more likely to have runoff, especially if a lot of heavy rain happens at once.”

Or, as Cervino put it: “Drought leads to cracks, desertification, floods and erosion.”