To be honest, I thought getting out of the drought would be near impossible during the month of May. However, to quote the old Adidas campaign slogan: “Impossible is nothing.”
Rain, and persistent rain at that, wiped out our drought according to the United States Drought Monitor, and with pre-summer water usage just starting to peak, we even have a bit of a water cushion going into the season.
May will wind up around the fifth wettest in New Jersey’s history, going back to 1895, New Jersey State Climatologist (and my weather mentor) Dave Robinson explained on my Monthly Weather Roundup online show, which came out Tuesday. That ranks about fifth out of 131 years – very impressive.
The rainfall data
Specifically, Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township wound up with a massive 7.37 inches of precipitation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The average is 3.34 inches, so May 2025 was more than twice the average.
It was the airport’s wettest month since March 2024, according to NOAA. Plus, it was the fourth wettest May on record, going back to 1944.
That total amount is good for curing drought, but what really sped up our recovery was how many days it rained during May. The count was 16 – that’s more than half the month, tied for the second most number of May days with rain.
While May 2025 rain was incredible at the airport, precipitation totals at the Sen. Frank S. Farley State Marina in Atlantic City were not as impressive, but still way above average. The 5.09 inches of precipitation was nearly double the average, according to NOAA. Here, there were 15 days of measurable rain. While that’s plenty, that doesn’t come close to the 20 days of May rain seen way back in 1886. That mark is the most days with rain of any month on record.
The exciting news is the drought is over, according to one official source, the United States Drought Monitor.
On May 20, not one inch of New Jersey was in drought anymore. The last area in a drought classification was from roughly Stafford Township and Surf City in Ocean County, south to about Cape May Court House and Stone Harbor in Cape May County on May 13. Then, drought extended into most of Cumberland County, as well as parts of Salem, Camden, Gloucester and Burlington counties.
Thus ended what was our worst drought in two decades.
“I think it is fair to say (this is our worst drought since 1998-2002)… In terms of the depth of the drought, the deficit of precipitation and even the longevity, I would say this was the worst since the 1998-2002 period. That was worse (than this drought),” Robinson said on the Monthly Weather Roundup.
To quickly recap from the United States Drought Monitor, drought began in a small part of Atlantic and Burlington counties on Sept. 10 as a “moderate drought,” the first level of drought. On Oct. 29, the whole state was in some stage of drought. With our record driest fall in New Jersey since 1895, drought peaked from Nov. 19 to Dec. 24. At this point the South Jersey Shore, and most of the southern half of the state, were in a level three of four drought, known as an “extreme drought.”
Drought conditions slowly improved during the winter. However, the extreme drought didn’t go away until April 8. The nearly record wet May accelerated the improvement of drought, getting us to where we are now.
May was really our last hope of pulling out of drought short of a major storm event. Going into the summer, you would have likely needed some kind of statewide torrential rain, like a tropical storm or hurricane, to deliver the rain needed to cure drought. In this case, Planet Earth gave us the luck we needed.
The state still
has us in drought
Nonetheless, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) still has New Jersey under a drought warning as of June 3. A warning is the second of three levels of drought the NJDEP uses. There was a meeting scheduled for June 4, after our deadline, to review the data, and it’s possible by the time you read this that we will be out of the drought warning. Robinson is part of the U.S. Drought Monitor and the NJDEP groups that determine drought status, and he said they both work together.
However, going on the data we have now, the state’s drought warning continues for its 28th week in a row.
As Robinson indicated during the Monthly Weather Roundup, and reading into the data, it’s the Jersey Shore that has likely kept the state in a drought warning.
Groundwater
Despite all of the rain, the groundwater takes a long time to recharge itself after a dry spell which really began about a year ago. It needs to get into the soil and then it slowly trickles into the aquifer’s massive pools of underground water.
Again, it’s possible the warning will be downgraded to a watch later this week. Be on the lookout.
Joe Martucci, a Certified Broadcast Meteorologist and Digital Meteorologist, is the President and Director of Meteorology for Cup A Joe Weather and Drone. You can connect with him at cupajoe.live.
