North Carolina's drought has no end in sight
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
North Carolina's statewide drought is getting worse, and weather forecasters don't expect any rain to help ease the strain this week.
Why it matters: The soil is extremely dry as farmers enter the main planting season, and as groundwater levels drop, some communities are taking water conservation measures.
State of play: The U.S. Drought Monitor's newly updated map shows that the entire state is in drought and that conditions have become severe in most of the state and extreme in some pockets.
- Streams are drying out, with many of those monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey reaching all-time lows.
- Conditions aren't expected to improve this week. "Our rain chances will be essentially zero," the National Weather Service in Raleigh said in a Thursday briefing.
Zoom in: Last month, North Carolina had its fifth-lowest rainfall total in any March on record. A statewide burn ban has been in effect for nearly two weeks (though fires set within 100 feet of a home are OK).
- "Winter is usually the time when North Carolina's water supplies get replenished due to good rains and low-water demand, but those good rains did not happen this winter," Klaus Albertin, chair of the state's Drought Management Advisory Council, said in a news release.
Municipalities tend to grow concerned about dwindling drinking water supplies in times of extreme drought.
Case in point: The town of Nashville, located about 45 miles east of Raleigh, asked residents Tuesday to begin voluntarily conserving water, including by limiting the watering of lawns.
What they're saying: North Carolina's agricultural sector, valued at more than $100 billion, is typically among the first to feel the pain.
- The state's drought "is just adding additional woe to a year when farmers were already looking at a bleak outlook thanks to low commodity prices and high production costs," Jeffrey Dorfman, a professor in N.C. State's Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, told Axios in an email.
Between the lines: War in the Middle East has caused fertilizer and shipping prices to surge, and economists expect those costs will eventually hit grocery stores.
How it works: Dorfman said drought may lead farmers to reconsider what they're planting and to prioritize more drought-tolerant crops like peanuts, for example. "Overall, though, farmers will just pray it gets better."
- And as fellow N.C. State researcher Seunghyun Lee points out, weather risk depends on timing.
- In a recent analysis shared with Axios of several decades of crop yields, Lee found that early-summer stress hits corn hardest, while late-summer stress is more damaging to soybeans.
What's next: Temperatures are forecast to climb into the 80s this weekend and to possibly reach 90 on Wednesday.
- Drought is expected to persist through April.