Is your sunscreen handy? Air conditioner working alright?
The extreme heat is coming this week, and if you want to try to fry an egg on the pavement, go ahead — but be mindful of how much water you use to clean up after yourself.
Virginia is bracing for the possibility of an emergency drought declaration with more than a quarter of the commonwealth classified in the extreme drought category.
The region is heading into the Fourth of July with expected record-setting heat, and despite a rainy weekend, Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality says a significant drought event is imminent.
“This is one of the more serious droughts that we’ve seen in many years,” said Weedon Cloe with the Department of Environmental Quality.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday more than 52% of the commonwealth is listed in severe drought, and a quarter of the state’s drought conditions are considered extreme. Zooming into Northern Virginia, most of the region is listed as moderate.
Local water suppliers and governments are anticipating Virginia will soon declare a drought emergency and put restrictions on water usage, restrictions some leaders said are not warranted in Fairfax County.
“If Virginia declares a drought and ignores the conditions on the Potomac River, then we could be putting our residents at risk of drought restrictions that aren’t needed,” said Fairfax County Board Chairman Jeff McKay.
He sent a letter to Virginia’s governor saying if the Potomac River isn’t exempted from water restrictions, we “risk unnecessary hardship for more than 2.2 million people and the economy of Northern Virginia.”
Fairfax Water supplies drinking water throughout the region and collects its water from the Potomac River. Fairfax and the broader D.C. region benefit from reservoirs that are maintained upstream, which helps keep potable water flowing throughout the region during droughts. The reservoirs are maintained by a regional co-op that, just this month, issued new guidance that says it’s highly probable the region will need to tap into these water reserves this year.
“So this was really just meant to make sure that that was on her radar and that if she was looking at putting in drought restrictions in the rest of the commonwealth of Virginia, that we do what we’ve always done is look at Northern Virginia and the Potomac River separately,” McKay said.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/3tZpQDY
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