The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. said this means that the community should continue to conserve water.
CUC said it uses source water from 142 groundwater wells on Saipan and one Maui-type well on Tinian.
On Rota, the water primarily comes from two surface water sources that are occasionally supplemented with groundwater from three wells.
In its quarterly bulletin for July, the Pacific El Niño-Southern Oscillation Applications Climate Center said Rota was the only recording location in the region to experience above-normal rainfall during the first half of 2010.
This was largely the result of a wet January, the report said.
“Drought conditions are no longer expected for any of the Micronesian islands [but] some of the northern Marshall Islands and Saipan and Tinian should continue to conserve water until drinking water sources are partially recharged,” the report stated.
It added that the average rainfall at Saipan is roughly 2 inches less than the monthly rainfall on Guam for all months of the year.
During the years that followed El Niño, the dry season on Guam and in the CNMI was drier than normal, and was often prolonged into July.
“These two island groups are among the few places in Micronesia where rainfall does not fully recover to normal or above normal annual amounts following El Niño. Guam and the CNMI depend on tropical cyclone and monsoon trough activity for much of their rainy-season rainfall and following an El Niño event,” the report said.
