The North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council (DMAC) has classified all or part of 99 counties as in moderate drought or abnormally dry, with high temperatures and low precipitation driving the rapid deterioration of conditions across the state.
DMAC classified 57 counties as in moderate drought, or in D1 conditions. Another 42 counties were classified as abnormally dry. This marks only the second time since 2000 that North Carolina has seen an increase in the drought classification for more than 50 percent of the state in one week.
“The hot and dry conditions resulted in a rapid degradation of conditions statewide,” said Klaus Albertin, chair of the DMAC. “The lack of rainfall has been made worse by the warm weather and low humidity. We have already seen impacts to stream flows and reservoirs. The late spring and early summer are critical in the growing season, and impacts to agriculture have already been seen.”
Groundwater and surface water reservoirs typically see higher demand for water during the summer, and the ongoing dry conditions could result in water restrictions. Some utilities, including in Brunswick, Johnston, Pamlico and West Carteret, have issued water conservation advisories.
Recent rainfall across much of the state has been minimal, with Southeast Regional Climate Center data indicating that some weather stations have recorded their driest 30 days on record. Based on the short-term forecast, drought conditions may expand or worsen.
DMAC’s drought map is updated weekly on Thursday. The next update will be on July 3 due to the July Fourth holiday.
DMAC is a collaboration of drought experts from various government agencies in North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina, and organized by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources (DWR). Members of DMAC meet weekly and submit their drought condition recommendations to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Drought Mitigation Center for updates to the U.S. Drought Monitor (i.e., drought map), a map of the nation’s drought conditions. To view North Carolina’s drought map, visit www.ncdrought.org. To view the U.S. drought map, visit http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/.