Severe drought declared for most of LI

It's official: Most of Long Island is experiencing a severe drought -- for the first time in a decade, according to the National Weather Service.

All of Suffolk County and eastern Nassau County were declared Thursday to be in a severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, issued by the weather service's Climate Prediction Center.

The designation comes as average rainfall for the 60 days ending Thursday was 4 to 6 inches below normal in southeastern New York, according to the service.

Such drought determinations are made by a group that includes climatologists, hydrologists and agriculturalists, said Joey Picca, a meteorologist with the Upton-based service.

Picca said Friday the issues they considered include soil moisture, river and stream flow, rainfall, the effects on crops, and, yes, fires such as the one that burned 1,124 acres in Manorville and Ridge on Monday and Tuesday.

On Friday, firefighters from more than a dozen Nassau County localities contained a wildfire in a remote 10-acre area of the SUNY Old Westbury campus, officials said.

Still, the lack of precipitation is working in Long Island farmers' favor, said Dale Moyer, agriculture program director of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County.

The lack of rain has allowed for earlier planting, he said, with the only big worry the possibility of a late frost. Continued dry weather into the summer, however, could lead to higher irrigation costs, he said.

The last time the service declared a severe drought on Long Island was in 2002, Picca said, and that one rose to become "exceptional," the weather service's top ranking on its drought scale that runs from D0 to D4. The Island's last moderate drought, a D1, was in August and September 2010, he said.

On Thursday, western Nassau and New York City were deemed to be experiencing a moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

As of Friday afternoon, there was little relief in sight, Picca said. There's a chance of rain Saturday night into Sunday morning, but no heavy rainfall is expected, he said. And it's too early to determine rainfall predictions for a system that may hit the area in the middle of next week, he said.

With William Murphy