{"id":447542,"date":"2026-05-18T11:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/447542\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T11:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:11:09","slug":"n-b-could-experience-severe-drought-sooner-this-year-says-environmental-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/447542\/","title":{"rendered":"N.B. could experience severe drought sooner this year, says environmental scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Despite a rainy spring, much of New Brunswick is in a state of moderate drought, which one environmental scientist says could mean problems for the summer ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The most recent Canada Drought Monitor report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada reflects conditions up to April 31 and shows abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions all across the province except in the northwest.<\/p>\n

This marks a slight improvement from severe drought in certain parts of the province last month. As of Feb. 28, parts of central New Brunswick were in extreme drought.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matthew Alexander, a senior environmental scientist with Fundy Engineering with a PhD in groundwater hydrology, says drought conditions in the spring are \u201csomewhat unusual\u201d but are the result of last summer\u2019s dry stretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast summer we had such a severe drought because we had very little precipitation in July, August and September, and it resulted in those conditions,\u201d said Alexander, who was just elected mayor of Rothesay. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was going to take a lot of precipitation to bring us back up into non-drought conditions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to last year\u2019s data from the Canada Drought Monitor, the first signs of drought were reflected in a report on July 31, which showed much of the province was abnormally dry, with eastern regions in moderate or severe drought.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AAs of the end of April, most of New Brunswick was in moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions. The exception was northwest. (Canadian Drought Monitor)<\/p>\n

By Aug. 31, the entire province had moderate, severe or extreme drought conditions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means that we’re going to be starting at a sort of a deficit already,\u201d Alexander said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re predicting a hot, dry summer again this year and if that occurs, then we could be seeing conditions that we were in last year, but they could actually happen sooner.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada’s seasonal forecast<\/a>, there is a 66 per cent chance temperatures will be above normal from July until September.<\/p>\n

\"AEnvironment and Climate Change Canada predicts temperatures from July to September will be higher than usual. (Environment and Climate Change Canada)<\/p>\n

Precipitation levels are still unclear, with almost equal probability predicted for above, normal and below usual levels. <\/p>\n

Many New Brunswickers experienced a dried-up wells last summer, and Alexander said this could happen again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And even the precipitation in coming forecasts won\u2019t relieve drought conditions immediately.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a very long time for water at the surface to actually make it down to the groundwater level that people are tapping into,\u201d Alexander said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we could be months to two years before those levels really recover back to what they were.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That timeline will depend on just how dry this coming summer is, compared to precipitation levels, Alexander said. <\/p>\n

He said only about 20 to 30 per cent of rain actually makes it into the ground. Most of it runs off the surface or evaporates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The province is encouraging New Brunswickers to conserve water as much as possible, with some solutions available online<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spokesperson Vicky Lutes said in an email that \u201calthough conditions have improved, continued and sustained precipitation will be necessary to maintain this progress.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile both surface water and groundwater levels increased in April, most remain below normal.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-447542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}