Southern Cumberland County enters extreme drought as dry spell worsens
Southern Cumberland County is now in extreme drought, with Cape May and the county’s south seeing severe groundwater stress and little rain ahead.
Extreme drought has taken hold in southern Cumberland County, putting Vineland, Bridgeton, Millville and the county’s southern communities into the most severe tier short of exceptional drought. The classification, from the U.S. Drought Monitor and National Weather Service Mount Holly/Philadelphia, means the dry spell is no longer just a patch of brown lawns. It is now a regional water stress signal that can reach private wells, farms, fire danger and everyday outdoor use.
The hardest-hit area stretches across the Coastal South region, which includes Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties, along with parts of Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Burlington and Ocean counties. Cape May County and the southern half of Cumberland County are in extreme drought, while the rest of South Jersey remains dry to severely dry. The U.S. Drought Monitor says the pattern is affecting agriculture as well as groundwater and surface-water resources, and the forecast does not point to much heavy rainfall that would quickly break the pattern.
That matters on the ground in Cumberland County. Lawns and gardens will struggle to recover without steady rain, and growers are facing pressure on irrigation and soil moisture at a time when the region has already been stressed by a long dry stretch. For homes that rely on private wells, depleted groundwater can become a practical concern, especially when recharge is slow. Outdoor burning also remains a sensitive issue because dry vegetation increases wildfire risk, even when a short rain offers only temporary relief.
New Jersey’s drought system does not track rainfall alone. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection divides the state into six drought regions that generally follow watershed boundaries, and the agency bases drought status on water-supply conditions. That is why the Coastal South region can move differently from the rest of the state. NJDEP issued a statewide Drought Watch on Oct. 17, 2024, then escalated to a statewide Drought Warning on Nov. 13 after a roughly 10-inch rainfall deficit over the previous three months and rapidly worsening water-storage indicators.
The warning period also brought practical consequences. On Nov. 22, 2024, NJDEP said some fire restrictions were lifted after rainfall, but the statewide drought warning stayed in place. In June 2025, when the statewide warning was lifted, the Coastal South region remained in drought watch status, a sign that southern Cumberland County and neighboring south-coast areas often recover later than the rest of New Jersey.
For farmers, the drought has carried a steep price. The New Jersey Department of Agriculture said the fall drought hit growers hard, and even farms without crop losses faced extremely high irrigation costs. Rutgers Cooperative Extension continues to work with farmers on research-based solutions, but the immediate reality in Cumberland County is plain: conserve water, watch for fire advisories, and expect stress on fields, wells and wetlands until the region gets sustained rain.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Know something we missed? Have a correction or additional information?
Submit a Tip
