NYC sees driest summer in over two decades after 8.7 inches of rain

Rain was in short supply this summer.

The Big Apple sweated through its most arid summer in more than two decades — receiving 36% less rainfall than what Gotham is used to during the hot and sticky months.

Just 8.7 inches of rain were dumped across the five boroughs between June and August, far less than the average of almost 14 inches.

But the low rainfall isn’t posing concerns for another full-on drought, like the one New York City saw last fall.

“The New York City area is under what’s called a moderate drought. It’s a scale of basically 0 to 4. And so we’re at a level two right now,” explained Stephen McCloud, a Fox Weather meteorologist.

“That just means that we’re trending in the direction of being more and more behind average. What could trigger that? We just haven’t had many fertile passages or storms that have actually moved through to give us that rain or had rain for a long period of time. We’ve had rain, but it’s not been a long-duration rain that we’re all used to.”

The average total rainfall for June, July and August in the Big Apple is 13.69 inches, with 1999 still on record as the driest in history after receiving just 3.92 inches.

Last summer, the five boroughs were doused with a heavy 12.93 inches — just before the sky opened up for most of the fall and ignited a drought that depleted reservoirs and forced residents to conserve every drop of tap water.

Despite the dryness, the city’s six reservoirs have been staying steady, falling just 2% below their storage capacities.

“There is no concern about drought at this time,” a spokesperson for the city Department of Environmental Protection told The Post.

The lack of rain this year may have been deceiving, especially after the Big Apple experienced its second-wettest hour in history as torrential rain drenched the city — trapping straphangers on subways by the freak flash flooding.

“It does seem like it rained a lot this summer … It may have come down all at once. In one day, we got quite a bit of rain, but if you look at the entire summer, that doesn’t constitute a lot of rain,” said McCloud.

Plus, this summer has been slightly cooler than usual. The average temperature clocked in around 75.5 degrees, which is below the typical 78 degrees.

While New York City is not in danger of a drought at the moment, neighboring Long Island has been placed under a drought watch by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Residents are encouraged to conserve water at this stage.