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It’s been a soggy week in western North Carolina. The good news: the drought that’s lasted since May has been alleviated by last week’s storms. The two to three inches of heavy rain that fell between July 22 and 25 caused localized flooding in parts of Buncombe County. It also refreshed dried-out soil. Prior to last week, Asheville had been in a precipitation deficit. Some areas are still in abnormal or moderate drought, with Franklin County experiencing its third driest year in 70 years of record keeping.
According to Corey Davis, assistant state climatologist for the North Carolina State Climate Office, climate change means we’ll keep seeing more of these precipitation swings.
“That means the wet periods get wetter, the dry periods get drier, and, again, we see these rapid changes in between,” Davis said. “So it's not too surprising that the drought at least in the Asheville area is coming to an end with extreme rain and flooding.”
But the drought might not be totally over yet. Much of the groundwater replenishment went to South Carolina rather than directly to depleted western North Carolina groundwater systems, Davis said. As of last Thursday, a portion of far southwestern North Carolina was listed by the U.S. Drought Monitor as having “severe” or “extreme” drought. According to a report by Davis, significant drought recovery in the near term is less likely in the far southwest.
“If we can make it through the end of the summer without any more heat waves or big dry spells we'll just be waiting on those better rain chances for the end of the year, and that will finally dig the rest of the state out of this drought,” Davis said.
