‘Normal’ rainfall pulls Rowan out of drought
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 2, 2009
By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
Rowan County is no longer in a drought.
Last week, the U.S. Drought Monitor removed Rowan and many other N.C. counties from any category of drought.
It’s thought to be the first month since May 2007 that Rowan hasn’t been listed within some kind of drought category by national climatologists.
Individuals, businesses and government agencies which track precipitation all report that Rowan County has received more than 40 inches of rain in 2008.
Joe Hampton, superintendent for the Piedmont Research Station on Sherrills Ford Road, said rainfall between 40 and 45 inches a year is about normal for the county. The research station’s gauges already have measured more than 40 inches this year, with a week to go.
Hampton noted the research station saw only 27-plus inches in 2007, one of the driest years in the state’s history.
Hampton said while people might think it’s been raining too much lately, they should realize that what they’re seeing is normal. The dry conditions, especially in 2007, make the healthy amounts of rainfall this autumn seem unusual.
It’s really what we’re supposed to be getting.
The L.L. Goodnight & Sons store near Enochville has measured 49.75 inches of rain for 2008 รณ the most since 2003, when the county had 66.51 inches.
Hilda Goodnight said the store’s gauges registered only 27.55 inches of rain in 1986 and 31.47 inches in 2007. Back to back dry years in 2000 (32.88 inches) and 2001 (34.09 inches) led into the tough drought of 2002, she noted.
Bill Overman, who has been a devoted weather observer since 1960, said he has measured 41.67 inches of precipitation in 2008 from his Rockwell home. “I would say we had a normal year,” Overman said, “but it (rainfall) came at various times.”
An unusually wet fall helped bring Rowan County and much of the rest of the state out of drought conditions, though municipalities continue to ask residents to follow voluntary water conservation practices.
Back in mid-September, Rowan County was still considered in a “moderate” drought, though September was an exceptionally wet month. The Goodnight store measured more than 5 inches of rain in September; Salisbury Fire Station No. 3, 4.39 inches; and the research station, 4.16 inches. (See chart).
Rowan County’s 2008 rainfall total also was buoyed by the unusual rains in late August that dumped upwards of 8 inches of rain on the county over two days.
November and December have registered healthy amounts of rain.
Today, some 65 percent of the state is no longer in a drought, though 100 percent of the state was in some kind of drought category at the start of the year. The U.S. Drought Monitor still classifies the western third of the state in “abnormally dry” to “extreme drought” conditions.
In November, the U.S. Department of Agriculture granted Gov. Mike Easley’s request to have 59 counties designated as disaster areas because of crop losses caused by drought and extreme heat earlier in the year.
Rowan, Cabarrus, Davie, Iredell and Stanly counties were among those included.
Jeff Jones, planning and research manager for Salisbury-Rowan Utilities, said water flow on the Yadkin River bears out the decision to remove Rowan from drought status.
But he anticipates that Salisbury and other cities will continue to raise awareness of the importance of water conservation and urge residents to follow voluntary conservation practices.
The recent rainfall has helped lake levels. High Rock Lake is only a half-foot below full pond.