Ohio’s historic drought of ‘24

By Matt Reese

As of the end of August, the U.S. Drought Monitor described around 1.32% of the state in D4-Exceptional Drought. This is the first time that D4 has been depicted on the U.S. Drought Monitor map in Ohio since it was created in 2000.

By early September this area expanded from Pickaway County and to the east. At the same time, the level of D3-Extreme Drought increased to cover about 15% of the state, with 25% of Ohio experiencing D2-Severe Drought conditions or worse and almost 75% of the state is experiencing at least abnormally dry conditions, according to Aaron Wilson, an Atmospheric Scientist at The Ohio State University holding a joint appointment as a Research Scientist at the Byrd Polar & Climate Research Center and Ohio State University Extension.

“This has been a long-term thing. About 55% of the state was abnormally dry back on June 18. That was right after that extreme heat wave where we had about 8 days above 90 degrees there. It’s just been a really slow progression,” Wilson said. “The drought in 2012 was really focused mostly in southwest and western Ohio. This is focused more on southeastern Ohio. The last time we were close to this was back on Sept. 4 of 2007 when about 11% of the state was covered, and not in this part of the state. In the U.S. Drought Monitor, Ohio has never had a D4 Exceptional Drought category since the U.S. Drought Monitor began in 2000. We have had periods of Extreme Drought, but the last time that we even had any D3 Extreme Drought in the state was Aug. 28 of 2012 and that was about 1 to 2% of the state. This is the most D3 coverage that we’ve had on this in the state since the inception of the U.S. Drought Monitor, and in a lot of these counties it’s for the first time that they’ve seen these extreme conditions, so it’s got some historical significance for sure.”

The dry conditions are significantly impacting Ohio agriculture.

“Of course, agriculture is on the frontlines of every drought, because agriculture fields feel it first, and then we eventually start seeing our water deficit that we’re certainly seeing now. And eventually we see ecological impacts, that are also starting to creep in,” Wilson said. “What are getting hit really hard right now are pastures. Pasture growth has pretty much been nonexistent or shut down for a lot of folks down there. Second cutting hay came off at about 25% of normal production and they’re not really expecting much growth at all. Creeks and streams are very low across the region. We’ve gotten reports and pictures of dry private wells across that area of the state. As far as the crop side, there is a lot of tip back, and very pineappled corn out there that’s firing and not looking very good. Soybeans are not filling pods in that part of the state. We’re seeing a lot of water hauling take place. Dairy and hog operations are hauling thousands of gallons of water per week. They’re feeding hay in some of those areas. Obviously, the lawns are dormant. From a forestry perspective, a lot of the high moisture needs of things like black walnuts and maples are a concern. Trees are yellowing or reddening. They’re losing leaves and it’s been a little bit hard to control some minor fire activity in southern and southeast Ohio as well just because of the dry leaf matter.”

Hydrologically, some creeks are completely dry in southern Ohio. The Hocking River in Athens is at the lowest flow since 1930, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Along with the D3 expansion, areas of D0 Abnormally Dry, D1 Moderate Drought and D2 Severe Drought have expanded as well, while other parts of the state have been getting nice rains through much of the growing season, in some cases too much rain. While conditions are generally dry in much of the state, crops and pastures in many parts of central and northern Ohio have fared well in 2024.  

“Some areas picked up some isolated heavy rainfall. It’s not been very widespread and it’s largely missed these areas that we currently see in Extreme Drought. We had that very isolated swath of 3 to 9 inches of rain from Orville up into Geauga County associated with some remnant moisture from Tropical Storm Debbie,” Wilson said. “If we go back to early July, we had another tropical system that came up into the region, but that was mostly a benefit in Indiana and Illinois — not a lot of precip across southeastern and southern Ohio. There were several heavy rains from Cincinnati to Portsmouth along the Ohio River that helped to improve conditions a little bit from the Moderate Drought to Abnormally Dry. But we’ve expanded Abnormally Dry conditions again back across Northwest Ohio. And the forecast would probably lean towards some expansion of abnormally dry or even drought areas across the state.”

Some late August/early September rains helped the situation, but please keep saying prayers for rain and Ohio’s farmers with regard to the historic drought conditions of 2024.