In 2024, there was a drought in Charlottesville from June 27-September 2. It appears to have impacted the Norway Spruce the most. How would you feel without adequate water for 67 days?
Apparently, this was not limited to our area. A recent article by Pope et al. (2024) in Forest Ecology and Management found that Norway Spruce below 800 m in the Carpathian Mountains suffered a similar fate.