And drought watch advisories for: 

• New River: Bland, Carroll, Floyd, Giles, Grayson, Montgomery, Pulaski, and Wythe counties and the cities of Galax, and Radford
• Middle James*: Chesterfield, Hanover, and Henrico counties and the cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Petersburg, and Richmond
• York-James: Charles City, James City, New Kent, York counties and the cities of Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson, and Williamsburg
• Southeast Virginia: Isle of Wight County and the cities of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach

The DMTF considered the following information in its advisory recommendations:

• Streamflows were largely normal, however, parts of the Roanoke and Upper James basins, along with tributaries of the Shenandoah River, continue to show much‑below‑normal flows. Recent average streamflows indicate a gradual drying trend, likely tied to below‑normal groundwater levels.

• Soil moisture remains near normal in most areas. However, drier‑than‑normal soils persist from the Staunton to Lynchburg corridor and extend eastward toward Emporia, where a larger area of much‑drier‑than‑normal conditions continues.

• Groundwater levels are mixed: areas that were already above normal continued to rise, while regions with below‑normal levels saw further declines. Several drought monitoring wells in Patrick County, Rockbridge County, and southern Prince William County are at or near record lows.

• Reservoir levels across the Commonwealth are all within normal ranges, except for Smith Mountain Lake and John Kerr Reservoir, which remain much below normal for this time of year. 

• Precipitation over the past week was above normal across much of the Commonwealth. Localized storms produced 3 to 5 inches of rainfall in parts of the Big Sandy drought evaluation region, as well as in Accomack, Orange, and Westmoreland Counties. In contrast, some areas received below normal totals of about 0.5 inches of rain, including portions of the Roanoke, Chowan, Lower Shenandoah, Western Middle James, and Upper James drought evaluation regions. Over the past 30 days, precipitation has been notably low from Staunton through Lynchburg to Danville, and eastward across the Chowan, Southeast Virginia, and Northern Coastal Plain drought evaluation regions, where totals are only 50 to 75% of normal. Longer-term deficits over the past 180 days are centered in central and southcentral Virginia, particularly between Danville and Emporia.

Agricultural producers report improvement in crop conditions throughout the Commonwealth as a result of recent rain; however, reports indicate that the corn crop in the Northern Valley region of the state is stunted and the tobacco crop in Southside is one month delayed in maturity. Stream, river, and pond levels remain low throughout much of the state.

In response to these conditions, Governor Spanberger is encouraging Virginians to conserve water during this drought.

The seven-day forecast calls for near or slightly-above-normal totals of 0.75 to 1.25 inches in southeast areas of the state. Precipitation totals generally decrease moving westwards, with below-normal seven-day totals of 0.25 to 0.50 inches expected in northern and southwestern Virginia. The DMTF will meet again on Sept. 1.

Additional information on the current drought status is available on the DEQ drought webpage and Drought Dashboard, which includes interactive data on stream gages, groundwater wells, soil moisture, and precipitation.

 *Note: The DMTF has listed a watch status for three counties and four cities in the Middle James, however the rest of the region remains in warning status.