The drought that devastated agriculture in the northeastern United States was the most significant of nine major weather events in the region last year, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC) at Cornell.

Dry conditions during the second half of 1998 served as prologue to the 1999 drought. After a wet January 1999, the months of February through August received only 76 percent of normal precipitation, making it the third driest February-August period in 105 years of record-keeping. Precipitation deficits for the 14 months ending August 1999 ranged from 6 inches to more than 14 inches across the region, according to Keith Eggleston, a senior climatologist at the center.

Severe drought, according to the Palmer Drought Severity Index, was reported in eastern Maryland in May and spread into parts of West Virginia during June. Drought conditions in these states intensified to extreme, the most severe drought category, by July and continued into September. By mid-July, severe drought was reported in parts of every state in the Northeast region, said Eggleston.

The NRCC cited these other regional weather events:

• 2) Hurricane Floyd (Sept. 15-18)
• 3) July heat wave (July 4-6)
• 4) Western New York snowstorm (March 3-4)
• 5) Late-season coastal snowstorm (March 14-15)
• 6) Mixed bag of precipitation (Jan. 13-15)
• 7) Flooding (Aug. 25-26)
• 8) Hurricane Dennis (Sept. 4-7)
• 9) Lake-effect snow (Jan. 1-15).