With the latest drought monitor released on Thursday, Feb. 19, the drought conditions continue to worsen across the state. We saw an increase in the severe drought coverage across the state from 68% of the state to 76%.
Let’s take a look at some of the historic impacts and what this drought could mean for our area.
The drought conditions are broken into 5 different categories: Abnormally dry, moderate drought, severe drought, extreme drought, and exceptional drought. Here are the current numbers across the state for each of the drought categories.
This means that all of the state is abnormally dry, and of that dry area, nearly all of it is under a moderate drought. Over the three-quarters of the state is also seeing severe drought conditions, and 5% of the state is under an extreme drought.
When we get into the severe drought category, which all of our area is experiencing, we start to see multiple prolonged impacts according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
We can see dryland crop yields lower, swimming areas and boat ramps close, voluntary and mandatory water restrictions, and wildfires become difficult to extinguish.
Parts of our area are now under an extreme drought, and even more impacts are possible including a decrease in hydropower if that lasts for a long period of time.
Although we received some rain this past weekend, we still need roughly between 5-7″ of rain within the next month to break our drought. Some areas towards Moore county and into the Charlotte area need close to 9″.
