{"id":207557,"date":"2026-04-23T19:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/207557\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:26:08","slug":"nyc-experiencing-moderate-drought-that-may-shorten-cherry-blossom-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/207557\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC experiencing ‘moderate’ drought that may shorten cherry blossom season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hurry up and see those cherry blossoms while you can.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Big Apple veered into \u201cmoderate\u201d drought territory <\/a>this week after spending months teetering on the edge \u2014 and it could shorten the precious few weeks the five boroughs are covered in flowers.<\/p>\n

The drier-than-normal conditions won\u2019t necessarily nip the flora and fauna in the bud, but a deceivingly small amount of water was dumped across the five boroughs in recent weeks and the petals are thirstier than normal.<\/p>\n

New York City entered \u201cmoderate\u201d drought territory this week. Shutterstock \/ Pedro Zurc<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably not going to have a big impact on the blooming overall. But once things start to grow, it could be, maybe, a shorter duration bloom,\u201d explained Matt Benz, a senior meteorologist at Accuweather.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just because of the lack of moisture that we have seen as of late.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Jan 1., Central Park picked up 9.63 inches of rain and snow \u2014 a shockingly small amount considering the Big Apple was whalloped with nearly double that amount of snowfall in February.<\/p>\n

When melted down to reflect the true precipitation rate, the nearly 20 inches of snow in this winter\u2019s blizzard didn\u2019t yield as much as one might expect.<\/p>\n

The Empire State typically sees 14.08 inches of precipitation during roughly the first four months of the year, meaning the Big Apple is running five inches below normal \u2014 or about 68%.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had these big snow events and you would think, \u2018Oh that would not lead to drought conditions in the spring\u2019 \u2026 We didn\u2019t have rain events during the winter months and that\u2019s where we were lacking precipitation overall,\u201d said Benz.<\/p>\n

The lack of moisture could shorten the weeks the city is covered in flowers. Getty Images<\/p>\n

New York state typically sees 14.08 inches of precipitation during roughly the first four months of the year. Shutterstock \/ WhiteYura<\/p>\n

That lower precipitation rate pushed the metro area into \u201cmoderate\u201d drought territory as of April 21, according to the US Drought Monitor.<\/a><\/p>\n

In this phase, crops can suffer damage and reservoirs might dip below normal levels \u2014 and our bloom season could be shortened.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, trees typically stock up on their moisture in the fall in preparation for the spring, leading to the incredible blooms seen across the five boroughs in recent days.<\/p>\n

The city is running five inches below normal in terms of average precipitation. Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Big Apple has had several sprinklings of rain in recent days, and expects to see between a half-inch and one inch this Saturday \u2014 which Benz said would be a \u201ctease\u201d for the plants.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to see things green up really quickly, like the grass, shrubs, things like that. Trees put down roots deep down into the ground \u2014 and that dryness goes down a ways. So there will be some impact and benefits to trees and such,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou need more of it over a longer period to really reap the benefits of it. I think you\u2019ll see a short-term gain, but then long-term if you really want to see more precipitation overall.\u201c<\/p>\n

At this time, the Big Apple isn\u2019t in serious drought territory, with meteorologists expecting an uptick in showers and thunderstorms in June and July.<\/p>\n

New York City went under a drought warning for the first time in more than two decades in the fall of 2024 after a record-breaking dry spell left reservoirs at only 60% capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hurry up and see those cherry blossoms while you can. The Big Apple veered into \u201cmoderate\u201d drought territory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82306,14570,22070,57,9,197,56,63,65,64,58,133],"class_list":["post-207557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-droughts","tag-flowers","tag-gardens","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}