I wake to an office window splattered by raindrops. The world beyond looks like an impressionist painting. My phone tells me we received .8 inches of rain yesterday.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Northern Virginia is no longer in drought. And yet, on a woods walk over the weekend, I noticed that one bellwether creek on my route remains dry.

I’ll believe we’re out of drought when Little Difficult Run flows freely, as it used to do in the old days.

It’s the evidence we see with our own eyes — and feel with our skin — that makes the difference.

(The soggiest photo I could find is one I snapped from a window while touring the Yorkshire Dales last May.)