North Carolina Drought Conditions Expected to ‘Persist’
There’s been plenty of talk about droughts across the U.S. lately, and that has really come to a head with the California fires. Nobody likes drought conditions, but they’re a reality, and it’s best to know when one is on the way or going to persist. Now, the long-range forecasters at NOAA have released their drought forecast for the spring, and it gives us a snapshot of what to expect from the coming months. This particular forecast goes beyond precipitation to a special “change in drought” forecast which depicts large-scale trends across the country.
North Carolina Spring Drought Forecast
So, what is a drought? It’s when a place has “less precipitation (rain or snow) than normal over a few months or even longer,” according to the National Drought Mitigation Center.
“When some places are in a drought, they may be dry, hot and dusty; cracks may appear in the soil, and rivers, lakes, streams, and other sources of water may go dry,” the National Drought Mitigation Center states. They add that even if places get rain, they could still be in drought conditions if they’re getting less rain than usual.
As for methodology for their drought trends and forecast, the NOAA employs expert climate scientists to look at past data and try to predict what’s ahead.
“Climate scientists base future climate outlooks on current patterns in the ocean and atmosphere,” the NOAA notes of their data and statistics. “They examine projections from climate and weather models and consider recent trends” and “also check historical records to see how much precipitation fell when patterns were similar in the past.”
Looking at North Carolina, the majority of the state is in brown, meaning the “drought persists,” so the NOAA doesn’t have much confidence in the possibility of wetter conditions hitting the area. This, unfortunately, could impact farming and other aspects of the state. Hopefully things turn around in the next projection.
The map also shows a general trend towards dryness across the U.S. As for the spring weather forecast and how it relates to possible droughts, the Farmer’s Almanac predicts a late spring for much of the U.S., stating that “winter conditions” will “linger, especially across the Midwest, Great Lakes, New England, and Northeast regions.” They add that “an unusually late winter storm brings a blanket of rain, sleet, and snow across the Atlantic Seaboard and mountainous areas in the Southeast during the first week of April.”
