Almost all of Virginia remains under a drought advisory ahead of the hot July 4 holiday weekend. Rainfall earlier this week provided some relief in central regions of the state, but it wasn’t enough to bring stream and groundwater levels back to anywhere near normal. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality warned that “precipitation is approximately 8.5 inches below normal on average throughout the state for the water year, which began on Oct. 1, 2025.” In response to the dry weather, Richmond Mayor Danny Avula announced that the city will implement voluntary conservation measures. “Everybody’s got to do their part to keep the water levels where we need them,” he said on WWBT. “If the James River flow drops below 750 cubic feet per second over 14 days, we’ll have to take the next step” to reduce water use. The river is currently running at about 1,200 cubic feet per second. Henrico County officials said they are releasing 64 million gallons of water per day from the Cobbs Creek reservoir to maintain supplies. Other counties, including Louisa and Caroline, have already imposed mandatory water-use restrictions. “As communities across the Commonwealth—particularly in Southside and Central Virginia—continue to be impacted by these conditions, it is important that we take commonsense steps to meet this challenge,” Gov. Abigail Spanberger announced in mid-June. “All Virginians can play a role in protecting our water supply during this historic dry period,” the worst since 1941. In Northern Virginia, parts of Fairfax are in a severe drought, but county leaders urged Spanberger to exempt the Potomac River if she decides to declare a state of emergency. While the Potomac, like most streams in the region, remains near a record low. Still, “we support Fairfax Water’s request for the Potomac River to be excluded from any statewide drought declaration, as to avoid unnecessary hardship for millions of Northern Virginia residents and businesses,” the chair of the Board of Supervisors, Jeff McKay, wrote in a letter to the governor. Amid the drought, forecasters warned that dangerous heat and humidity is expected in Virginia throughout the holiday weekend. Thursday and Friday are expected to set temperature records. In the longer-term forecast, a developing El Niño may bring slightly cooler temperatures in the months ahead and may also make for a less severe hurricane season this fall. The Virginia Drought Monitoring Task Force will meet again on Tuesday, July 7 to update its reports.