As of Monday, November 18th, NYC has escalated its drought watch to a drought warning—the first in 22 years!
It’s been an unfortunate series of events after continuous fires have erupted across NYC, from Brooklyn to Inwood Hill Park, as NYC is currently facing the second longest rainless streak in record city history. “New Yorkers should not underestimate the dry weather and what it means,” warned Mayor Eric Adams.
The difference between a drought watch and a drought warning is that local authorities can implement voluntary and mandatory water conservation efforts in a warning. Therefore, Deputy Mayor of Operations, Meera Joshi, is asking all New Yorkers to help save water wherever possible.
“[W]hile we cannot make it rain, we can take actions to reduce the risk of drought emergencies in our city,” echoed Adams. Some ways to conserve water include taking shorter showers, flushing the toilet less frequently, and not letting the water run while brushing your teeth.
In addition to New Yorkers’ conservation efforts, the city is enacting its own measures to secure the city’s water reserves, as reservoirs are down to 60% capacity. Agency water-saving efforts include pausing the Delaware Aqueduct repair project, monitoring stream flows, and working with municipal water suppliers.
In light of this all, forecasts are finally predicting rainfall at the end of this week. “We’re hopeful that an incoming storm on Wednesday and Thursday will bring some rain and relief, both to New York City as well as Upstate New York, but it’s not going to be enough,” said Terence O’Leary, Deputy Commissioner of Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services. “What we need are New Yorkers to make sure that they are thinking about the ways to conserve.”