{"id":67368,"date":"2025-08-13T20:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/67368\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T20:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:55:10","slug":"latest-drought-data-has-dropped-heres-what-it-says-about-nova-scotia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/67368\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest drought data has dropped. Here’s what it says about Nova Scotia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parts of Nova Scotia are now in severe drought, according to the latest update from the Canadian Drought Monitor.<\/p>\n

The monitor, managed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, classifies drought in five categories. By July 31, all of the province was registering drought conditions, ranging from the least severe category to the third highest.<\/p>\n

Most of the province was in moderate drought, while parts of\u00a0the\u00a0Annapolis Valley, Cumberland County and Cape Breton, along with a larger area in central Nova Scotia,\u00a0were\u00a0facing severe drought. An area in southwestern Nova Scotia\u00a0was abnormally dry \u2014 the least serious category.<\/p>\n

“In July, the Atlantic region received below-normal precipitation, with large portions of Nova Scotia getting less than 40 per cent of their usual monthly total,” said\u00a0the agency’s analysis.<\/p>\n

Ian Spooner, a professor of environmental science at Acadia University, said\u00a0the province is no stranger to droughts, including\u00a0in 2016, 2020 and 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, he said\u00a0this time around\u00a0“is a little different in that we’ve got absolutely no rain really in about a month.”<\/p>\n

\"SoilLarge portions of Nova Scotia got less than 40 per cent of their usual monthly rain total in July. (Giuliana Grillo de Lambarri\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Trevor Hadwen, an expert with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, said the monitor bases its categories \u2014 D0 to D4 \u2014 on different indicators, such as precipitation and temperature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each category is based on the percentile chance of those conditions occurring, and is specific to the area. That means a D1 drought in Manitoba will not look the same as a D1 drought in Nova Scotia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nationally,\u00a071 per cent\u00a0of the country was classified as having drought conditions\u00a0at the end of July, including a number of areas with extreme drought.<\/p>\n

Drought categories and their rarity<\/p>\n

D0 \u2014 Abnormally Dry \u2014 1 in 3 year event<\/p>\n

D1 \u2014 Moderate Drought \u2014 1 in 5 year event<\/p>\n

D2 \u2014 Severe Drought \u2014 1 in 10 year event<\/p>\n

D3 \u2014 Extreme Drought \u2014 1 in 20 year event<\/p>\n

D4 \u2014 Exceptional Drought \u2014 1 in 50 year event<\/p>\n

\"MapDrought intensity in one region of the country may look completely different in another, according to Trevor Hadwen, an expert with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. (Canadian Drought Monitor)<\/p>\n

Hadwen said what the recent data shows is an “intensification” of the drought conditions in Nova Scotia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said while the province has seen pockets of drought before, this one is affecting all of the province and the Atlantic region as a whole.<\/p>\n

“The last time we saw really significant rain in Nova Scotia was early June,” said Hadwen. “In the last 60 days … that’s over 100 millimetres of lost precipitation.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How dry is it in Nova Scotia? Meteorologist Ryan Snoddon explains<\/p>\n

The last time Nova Scotia had substantial rain across the province was in early June. CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon says our next chance of rain likely won’t come until late next week.<\/p>\n

Spooner said\u00a0the drought is being felt by people in their daily lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I live in a farming community, Grand-Pr\u00e9, N.S., and people are very concerned,” he said. “I live on a property in which we have big gardens \u2026 and we can see the effects.”<\/p>\n

\"NotLow levels of water at an irrigation pond in Pictou County, N.S. (Giuliana Grillo de Lambarri\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Nova Scotia has imposed a ban<\/a> on going into the woods,\u00a0to avoid starting wildfires. Municipalities have also asked residents to conserve water<\/a>, and fire departments have sounded the alarm on water levels in ponds and lakes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A wildfire that started on Tuesday near Halifax’s\u00a0Bayers Lake Business Park was\u00a0still out of control on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spooner said while any amount of rain would be helpful, the reality is that only sustained amounts will make a significant difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parts of Nova Scotia are now in severe drought, according to the latest update from the Canadian Drought…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-67368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}