Despite recent snowfalls, most of the Southern half of the state, including Ocean County, Ocean County remains in “extreme” drought, a rare designation which only occurs every 20-50 years, according to the latest maps from the National Drought Mitigation Center.
According to the map, which is updated weekly, six southern counties are experiencing an “extreme drought,” while the rest of the state is is one or two levels below.
While the region did receive some beneficial rains in November and December, January has been much drier than normal, with much of the area experiencing less than 0.10″ of pure rainfall this month.
Unfortunately, the snowfall we have received this month has not been particularly beneficial. Given the very cold conditions, the snowpack has largely been evaporating directly into the air, rather than melting and slowly soaking into the ground over time.
In November, Governor Phil Murphy issued a drought warning advisory for New Jersey, to preserve the available water supplies throughout the state and avoid shortages. That remains in effect.
There are different types of droughts. Meteorological drought refers to periods of low precipitation and high heat, like New Jersey has been experiencing this past months.
A hydrological or water supply drought refers to reductions in water supplies, like reservoirs, streams, and groundwater. A water supply drought determination is based upon a lack of precipitation, rapidly declining storage in the combined capacity of major surface water supply reservoirs, and/or severely depleted groundwater levels and stream flows.
The New Jersey department of Environmental Protection (DEP) uses specific indicators to gauge the impacts that significantly reduced precipitation has had on water supplies. These include reservoir levels, stream flows, and levels in shallow groundwater sources, known as unconfined aquifers, which are important in the longer-term replenishment of streams and reservoirs.
Seeking to Preserve Scarce Water & Snow Supply, Murphy Administration Announces Statewide Ban On Snowmen & Snowball Fights
In an effort to combat current drought conditions in NJ and preserve the state’s available water and snow supplies, the Murphy administration announced on Sunday a statewide ban on snowmen and snowball fights.
“If you’ve started building your snowmen already, please stop immediately!” Governor Murphy warned all New Jerseyans in a televised address on Sunday. “And, if you’re planning on throwing a snowball at your next-door neighbor right about now, please put your snowball back on the grass where it belongs, because we need to preserve all of our water supplies until this drought comes to an end!”
However, much to the dismay of the snowmen community, the Governor also announced that “Illegal snowmen who are built unlawfully, in spite of the statewide ban, will be deported to Alaska or the North Poll within the next couple of weeks.”
“ICE agents will be deporting the illegal snowmen and shipping them off to a more inviting, comfortable, safe and icy-cold environment that suits their chilling, frigid, climatic needs,” the Governor said. “But we will not allow them to camp out, illegally, outside our homes when their crucial water and snow content is so desperately needed by all of us right now!”
However, 5-year-old Ricky Winterfeld, an Ocean County native and longtime activist for the snowmen community, pledged to keep his personal snowman “fully intact, in its current place of residence, right on top of my front lawn, until the Spring season arrives and transports him to a more kinder, unknown, invisible world.”
“If the ICE people try to remove this brave snowman from my premises,” Mr. Winterfeld said, “they’ll be met with an onslaught of hundreds of thousands of snowballs, because the snowmen community of NJ and the activists who protest on their behalf, will launch a full scale snowball missile attack that will force the ICE military to retreat and to hoist the infamous white flag of surrender.”