The remnants of Hurricane Zeta and the unusual October snowstrom it brought to the Northeast last week have finally broken a months-long drought’s hold on much of Connecticut, although the eastern half of the state still remains parched.
Almost 40% of the state remains in a moderate drought, stretching from the southeast corner up to northern Hartford County, but above-average precipitation last month has virtually eliminated the severe drought designation that gripped parts of eastern Connecticut to start this fall, according to the new U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday.
Another band across the center of the state remains “abnormally dry,” though not technically in a drought, across parts of Litchfield, New Haven and Middlesex counties while the southwest corner of the state is not longer in any dry status -- a swift change from last week’s maps that put the entire state at least in the abnormally dry category.