ReportWire

Tag: WRAL WeatherCenter

  • Ask the Meteorologist: What does the worsening drought mean for us?

    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″.

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  • Ask the Meteorologist: How long could the ice last after the winter storm?

    With ice accumulation expected with the weekend winter storm, there will be both travel and power concerns. But how long will the ice last even after the precipitation ends? Could it impact our commute for multiple days?

    The setup after the storm

    The area of low pressure that helped to bring wintry precipitation to our area later Saturday through early Monday will finally exit offshore by late morning on Monday.

    High pressure builds behind that low, bringing drier conditions, and another batch of very cold air and breezy conditions moves in by later Monday into early Tuesday. Our next front passes later Wednesday into Thursday morning, bringing more cold air.

    The cold beyond the storm

    Lows by Monday morning will already be chilly in the mid-upper 20s Monday morning, so that ice that formed on the roads later Saturday into Sunday will stay in place.

    By the afternoon on Monday, highs could make it to the mid 30s in the Triangle with more sunshine, which would help some areas of ice to melt a bit. Shady areas will likely still have issues.

    If there is any moisture leftover on the roads later Monday into early Tuesday, it will very likely freeze over again as lows drop to the single digits and teens Tuesday morning with wind chill values approaching zero or dropping into the negatives.

    It will be very important to have a way to keep yourself warm, especially if there are ongoing power outages from the ice storm.

    With any ice lingering into Tuesday during the daytime, temps will be closer to freezing, so hopefully that sunshine in the afternoon can help to melt the ice more. Wednesday morning will be very cold again, but highs will be warmer in the afternoon, so we should see more improvements if there’s leftover ice.

    The bottom line

    Be sure to watch for updates from our team to know the latest on our road conditions and any ongoing power outages. It will be a quickly changing situation depending on exactly how much ice we see and how quickly the ice can melt after the storm.

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