Virginia has been experiencing serious drought conditions, and nowhere in the state have those conditions been worse than in Gloucester, Mathews, and the rest of the Middle Peninsula. Recent rainfalls have helped, but thus far they’ve done little to solve the underlying problem. Andrew Noyes, water supply planner for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s Office of Water Supply, said that the reporting period from Oct. 1 until the end of April was the second driest on record since record-keeping began in 1890. Only the year 2001 was drier, he said, and not by much. This year, rainfall was down on average across the state by 7.99 inches, while in 2001, it was down by 8.38 inches. Across the Middle Peninsula, he said, rain is down by an average of 12 inches. As of Tuesday afternoon, Gloucester and Mathews had received around 3-3.5 inches of rain, said Noyes, but because there was so much rain in a short time, some of that will run off the land and end up in the Chesapeake Bay...