Hey Rachel, what's the latest on drought conditions in North Carolina?

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]This is from our HD Tower Cam in Uptown Charlotte. Not today. Heavy rain moved through around this time last night triggering some flash flooding in some spots, soaking roads across the area.

[00:00:09]And boy, one big thunderclap that we heard right here at the studio.

[00:00:12]But after months of really dry conditions across the Carolinas, that rainfall certainly badly needed. And tonight, the newest drought monitor is out. So, let's talk about it for you here tonight. [music] Hey Rachel, how much rainfall did we end up after this really active pattern we've been in for days now and have we seen improvement in that drought >> monitor?

[00:00:30]>> Yeah, absolutely. Good question. You know, we ended up with 5 in right on the dot of rainfall at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. When you combine all of the rain that we've seen so far in May, and I know technically speaking we have a couple more days left in the month of May and we do have a few more chances of rainfall. But that puts us 2 in above average for the month so far.

[00:00:49]Unfortunately, the drought has been going on since last year and even for this year so far, 11 in of rainfall at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. We are still just about 6 and a quarter inches below average for where we should be and that's not even taking into account at the deficit that we ended last year with. Remember that was a little bit closer to 8 in of rainfall. I do want to break this out for you though day by day and you can see when a lot of this fell. You remember at the start of the month we actually did have a couple of significant rain total events towards the 6th and the 7th of the month right around an inch of rainfall. And then last Thursday we had about 8 tenths of an inch of rainfall at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport and then again into Monday and there are some of you listening in that saw even more than that. You may remember we had that flash flood warning that was in place for Caldwell County yesterday. A considerable flooding up that way. We saw 3 to 5 in of rain in a very short period of time. And that was an area that was under exceptional drought. It was introduced for the first time since 2008 last week and that is no longer in place. In fact, not only do we have extreme drought that's been paired back but severe drought now in Mecklenburg County. You may remember we had not only severe or extreme I should say but exceptional drought just a few weeks ago. So, this rainfall has been really helpful, but the severe to extreme drought continues.

[00:02:03]>> All right. Now, Rachel, we have some days it's hot, some days it's a little cooler. Is this kind of back and forth pattern something that uh is usually associated with severe drought years?

[00:02:12]>> Yeah, you know, so I was looking back at the other drought years that we've had.

[00:02:15]You know, we've had this variability, right? Uh over the past few weeks where we've gone up in terms of the drought conditions and gone back down where we had exceptional drought introduced and not. And I wanted to see what that looked like when you compared back to some of those years that we've been talking about a lot when we've had this exceptional drought. That was 2007 and 2008 and then that 2000 to 2002 range.

[00:02:35]So, when you look at 2008, now this is just from Mecklenburg County. I do want to point that out there. Uh but you'll notice that deep burgundy, that's that exceptional drought that's so rare here.

[00:02:44]Uh and you'll notice it drops off a little bit, but then comes back and then back in 2000 to 2002, that's when you'll notice there were several times where we would go into severe to extreme drought and then drop and improve a little bit and then it was just kind of intermittent over the course of 2 years. So, it just goes to show it takes a long time to get out of a drought. It's going to take a long time this time as well. So, variability seems to be pretty normal, par for the course. I'm just hoping that uh we can stay consistent with some of these rain totals and eventually get out of it a little bit sooner than later.

[00:03:12]>> Let's hope so. We need to get out of it.

[00:03:14][laughter] Not the up and down roller coaster.

[00:03:16]>> Yeah, just keep chipping away at it. All right, Rachel, thank you. There is more to come here on On Your Side tonight.