Virginia sees first normal drought status in Southwest as rains fall short of recharging groundwater

The state’s Drought Monitoring Task Force announced that most of Southwest Virginia, including Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise and the cities of Bristol and Norton, have returned to a normal drought classification, the first such rating since April 16. August rains have helped crop conditions, yet groundwater stores have not recovered after nearly a year of below-average precipitation.

The Department of Environmental Quality noted that while overall agriculture is improving, corn in the Northern Valley remains stunted and tobacco in Southside is a month behind maturity. Stream, river and pond levels continue to run low throughout Virginia. Meanwhile, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services restored its drought-resource webpage after a brief outage, and over 160 counties remain eligible for federal disaster relief through the Farm Service Agency and other programs. Federal low-interest loans for drought-affected farms are available until Monday, and state officials warn that new beef-import tariffs could hurt local cattle producers.