Were we all thankful for the rain this weekend? Yes! Was it
enough to help with the drought. Not really.
“It took a long time to get into this drought, and it will
take a long time to get out of it,” Meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner says.
Some areas had over an inch of rain this weekend. We officially had .55” of rain at RDU. As of
April 26, this is still the second driest start to spring on
record. We’ve had 2.26” so far at RDU this spring. We are still 4.92” below
normal for the season.
When going back to the beginning of the year, the picture is
even worse. It’s the driest start on record going back to Jan. 1.
We’ve had 6.61” for the year at RDU. That puts us at 6.78” below normal for the
year.
If you continue to go back in time, it doesn’t get better.
Going back to Oct. 1, we are 11.66” below normal.
We need 10 to 13 inches of rain in one month’s time to
really get out of this drought.
“We do have some good rain chances in the
forecast this week, but it’s still not enough,” Meteorologist Aimee Wilmoth
says.
“We could get up to half an inch of rain this week, which means we would still need 9.5 to 12.5” of rain to get out of the drought,” Wilmoth says.
We get updated drought monitors every Thursday morning. The WRAL
Severe Weather Team will share that information in the weeks and months ahead.