Epi Week #24 - 2017 General Statements

General Statement: After two years of starting off the mosquito season under drought conditions, we find ourselves in quite a different place in 2017. Not only have drought conditions been alleviated, but May precipitation totals were above average across the state (see map below). Despite the precipitation, several mosquito control projects noted that levels of Culiseta melanura larvae remain low, likely a factor of the lack of water (i.e. lack of habitat) the past two years.

Weather

Our weather expert (with, as always, a caveat that long-term weather predictions are difficult) notes that the current long-term outlook from NOAA is strongly predicting a hot and humid summer in the Northeast

Rain continues to be a frequent part of our weather schedule. As you can see from the Epi Week 24 map below, a band of storms brought significant precipitation to the eastern part of the state, with some parts of Essex County measuring rain in excess of 2.5 inches

The weather outlook shows average temperatures to continue through the end of Epi Week 25 (June 24th), followed by slightly cooler than normal temperatures into the start of July. There are also currently two tropical storms in the Atlantic region that, while extremely unlikely to threaten Massachusetts, still have the potential to bring rain.

Outlook maps for Epi Week 26 (6/25/2017 – 6/29/2017) are below