Epi Week #38 - 2016 General Statements

The season continued to quiet down during Epi Week 38. Though some districts/projects did see increases in levels of certain species, following the arrival of scattered precipitation, overall numbers were down, and a few projects are already ending surveillance for the season due to a lack of mosquito activity. The last date to submit mosquitoes for testing is October 6th.

Weather

Once again, drought conditions did not change over the past week, leaving more than 50% of the state in Extreme Drought (red), and nearly the entire state at a minimum of Moderate Drought (peach). At this point, for long-term drought relief, we would need several days of a slow steady soaking rain. MDAR’s weather expert is currently keeping an eye on recently formed Tropical Storm Matthew, though any potential impact we could see from this storm won’t happen until at least the middle of Epi Week 40. For now, expect to continue to see lots of clouds and some rain, but no significant accumulation.

For Epi Week 38, we finally got some green on the precipitation map, with more than 3 inches of rain received in parts of northern Worcester and eastern Franklin County, and also the upper Cape. Unfortunately the significant accumulation missed most of Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Plymouth, and Bristol Counties, where the majority of the state’s extreme drought conditions are occuring.