FARMVILLE – Timing is everything.

The Department of Environmental Quality announced this week it has continued the Drought Watch Advisory status for the Middle James River region, which includes the Appomattox River Basin.

The Appomattox River was approximately 100 yards wide in Farmville on Wednesday afternoon after more than four inches of rainfall upstream since early Monday morning.

Rain continued falling Wednesday night and all day Thursday before a winter storm was predicted to turn the rain into snow.

As one local resident quipped, DEQ should issue nothing more than a Drought Glance, not a Drought Watch. Just a passing glance.

The Drought Watch decision was based on a recommendation by DEQ's Drought Management Task Force during a meeting on January 10, last week, prior to the several days of rainfall, and the updated Drought Status Report was issued this Monday.

The Drought Management Task Force report notes “the warmer and drier conditions that existed across much of the Commonwealth during November continued through December throughout most of Virginia. Significant rainfall deficits exist across northern, central and western portions of Virginia…

“During its monthly meeting on January 10, the Drought Management Task Force agreed to continue the existing Drought Watch Advisories for the Roanoke River, New River, Middle James River, and Upper James River Drought Evaluation Regions,” DEQ announced.

The Town of Farmville, along with Buckingham, Cumberland and Prince Edward Counties, are included in the continuing Drought Watch Advisory status.

Officially, the Town of Farmville had 3.21 inches of rainfall from 7 a.m. Monday to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, according to T. Jordan Miles III, of WFLO, the official weather observer for the area.

Add .82 inches which fell earlier in the month and 4.03 inches of rain had fallen in Farmville in half a month, with average January rainfall totaling 3.46 inches, with additional rain and snow Thursday.

Some rain gauges west of Farmville contained over four inches of rain this week, alone.

And more on the way-frozen or not, here it comes.

So why a Flood Watch?

The Herald posed that question to Scott W. Kudlas, DEQ's Director of the Office of Water Supply, and he placed the issue into perspective, noting that the rainfall this week may change the status.

“All indicators were down significantly across much of the Commonwealth until this most recent rainfall,” he explained in an email reply. “I believe that we may have discussed the impact of seven and fourteen day average previously, which means that the impacts of the most recent rainfall will not likely be seen in the indicators for another week to 10 days.

“Due to the lack of groundwater recharge from limited rainfall and very dry soil (the soil must be saturated before groundwater can recharge) most of the rainfall to date has resulted in stream flow that quickly recedes to low levels…The other thing to note is that our statistics reset October 1 so folks often get caught up in looking at calendar year numbers, particularly for precipitation, which isn't relevant to hydrologic analysis,” Kudlas explained.

“This rainfall is welcome and will certainly help but we started the water year in a deficit and we should be seeing an inch a week or more this time of year. It may be that this rainfall changes the Watch designation in a couple of weeks. We will have to wait,” Kudlas wrote, “and see.”