Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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If there were only one word to describe winter 2008-09 nationally, it would be: dry.

The winter as a whole, December to February by meteorological definition, was the fifth driest on record for the United States, minus Alaska and Hawaii, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

January and February made up the driest two-month period to start a year since records began in 1895, according to the center, for both the 48 contiguous states and for Virginia.

That doesn't mean that every spot in the country or in Virginia was extremely dry, but that averaging the whole of each, it was the driest such period in 115 years of record keeping.

Texas had its driest winter on record. New Jersey and Delaware had their driest Februarys.

Precipitation for the winter was consistently above normal in only one area of the country, the Upper Midwest, where Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin were each above normal.

So the generous rains of this past weekend certainly helped with short-term surface moisture locally, but the long-term drought has continued to grow not just in Virginia, but in many other states, too.

Weather Journal will be taking a break. It will return Wednesday, March 25.