Thanks to recent rainfalls associated with Tropical Storm Andrea, North Carolina is now out of drought or abnormally dry conditions for the first time in three years.
The persistent drought has wreaked havoc on agriculture, affecting apple crops in the western part of the state and corn in the east.
Now, thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea and other rain events this spring, the state is no longer suffering from even the mildest classification of drought condition – abnormally dry or “D-zero” - for the first time in the past three years.
“We had a very nice damp spring and in some areas we got over a month and a half’s worth of rain in a two day period and that fell in the southern and southern coastal plain area,” said Mike Moneypenny, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Raleigh.
Better yet, the return of drought-like conditions isn’t likely to happen any time soon.
“Right now all of our lakes, all of our rivers are running in good shape. The groundwater has been replenished,” said Moneypenny. “So I think the first thing we would see is stress in our agricultural arena, but that would take us probably two to three weeks of 90-degree weather with no rainfall to bring us back to abnormally dry.”
The last time the U.S. Drought Monitor showed no drought or abnormally dry conditions in the state was back in April of 2010.