Snow, sleet, rain help douse drought talk
Pa., N.J., still have "watches," but forecast has wet look.
The snow amounts from last week's non-blizzard might have falllen way short of expectations.
But those reluctantly disappearing white patches and rivulets of melt evident in parts of the region underscore that what did fall was densely packed with ice and moisture.
Precipitation totals for the storm approached 2.5 inches in South Jersey; much of that sleet.
Almost nothing fell from the sky in the week after the storm departed -- the regional wet spot was Montgomery County, at 0.07 inches, according to the Middle Alantic River Forecast Center.
But for the first time in quite awhile, with its weekly update the U.S. Drought Monitor has removed all of South Jersey from even the "abnormally dry" zone, the least-serious drought category.
On the other side of the river, Philadelphia and the four neighboring counties are considered "abnormally dry," but none in the higher designations.
Technically, the environmental departments in New Jersey and Pennsylvania still have the entire region under "drought watch."
But starting Saturday "showers" show up in the National Weather Service for the next four days.