x
Breaking News
More () »

Last year's record rainfall could mean more localized flooding around DC this spring

Record-breaking precipitation in 2018 has left parts of the DC region with groundwater roughly four-feet higher than two years ago

WASHINGTON - Remember all of that rain in 2018? Well, experts say it can still have a big impact on the health of your lawn this Spring.

In 2018, Reagan National Airport, D.C.'s official recording site for precipitation, ended up with a record-breaking 66.28 inches of rain. That total was more than 2 feet above the region's annual average of 39.74 inches.

READ: '2018: The wettest year on record in DC, Dulles and Baltimore'

All of that rain left the D.C. region with a high amount of groundwater.

The United States Geological Survey monitors groundwater depth at thousands of sites across the country. A USGS monitoring site in Fairfax County, near Reston, shows the groundwater there is roughly four feet higher this April than what it was during the same time two years ago.

"Usually, what we see, is groundwater levels actually dropping through the summer and fall and rising back up again in the winter and spring," said Lily Whitesell, the stormwater outreach specialist for Arlington County. "But, what we saw this past year was that groundwater levels jumped up in fall and it just stayed there."

Scott Sutherland, a marketing specialist with Greenstreet Gardens in Virginia, describes the impact of high groundwater on local lawns and gardens.

With more water in the ground, Whitesell said the potential for more localized flooding in the DMV is now greater with storms that drop anywhere from an half-inch to an inch of rain.

In 2018, there were 24 days when observers recorded at least one inch of rainfall in the area.

"When it rains, the water is not able to infiltrate into the soil," she said. 

Whitesell said homeowners could subsequently notice an important machine on their property working overtime.

"What a lot of people are experiencing on the ground are conditions like sump pumps running all of the time and really just this ooze of water coming out of everybody's backyard," she said.

Locals could also see an increase in mosquitoes too.

Credit: USGS
This USGS graph shows the depth of groundwater, over a ten-year period, at a monitoring site in Fairfax County, near Reston.

But, the region's green thumbs are already seeing the effects of more groundwater in their gardens.

Sutherland said gardeners have been visiting the store with complaints about how their plants have fared in the rain.

"They're having problems like fungus that they are not used to, there's some mold growing, they're actually losing plants," he said. "There's been a lot of people who have lost trees and shrubs in their yards that have been there for years."

However, the flowers and vegetables aren't the only things that have been affected.

Credit: USGS

READ: Learn about groundwater storage and the water cycle

Sutherland says some homeowners have noticed that parts of their lawns are dying too.

"They have lawns that are literally low patches, not the entire lawn, but there are low spots where the grass is being drowned out," he said.

According to Sutherland, Northern Virginia also happens to be rich with marine clay.

That composition can also hurt plants when the region is exposed to a large amount of rainfall.

"It holds water," Sutherland said of the clay. "So, sometimes, it's just like a plant sitting in a bowl of water, which is surrounded by clay soil. That's not good for a lot of plants."

While groundwater in the region is high now, there is hope that it will decrease in the near future. Whitesell said levels had been slowly decreasing prior to last week thanks to a recent dry spell.

Before You Leave, Check This Out