FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:
After all our snow, sleet and freezing rain, you’d be reluctant to call it a dry winter. But in fact, BWI-Marshall has recorded precipitation deficits each month since October. The U.S. Drought Monitor map issued Feb. 3 showed 80 percent of Maryland was “abnormally dry” – all except Southern Maryland. We’re at the northeastern extreme of a dry region stretching across the south from Arizona to the Atlantic. That’s typical of a La Nina winter. NOAA says 24 percent of the U.S. saw “moderate” to “exceptional” drought in January.