DURHAM, N.C. — North Carolina heads into November without a break from a drought that has dragged on for a year in parts of the Piedmont, and some water systems are warning that tighter limits could still come.
Durham has been under Stage 2 water restrictions since mid-June, and city officials say a move to Stage 3 is possible if conditions do not improve, with effects that could stretch through the winter. November is the first anniversary of the initial drought designation for Durham. The Stage 2 rules already ban automatic and hose-end sprinklers and using a hose to wash driveways, sidewalks, decks or buildings.
The problem reaches well beyond one city. The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor map from late October showed conditions worsening across the coastal plain and Piedmont, and put upward of three in ten acres statewide, Wake and Johnston counties among them, at the severe level or higher. The dry spell touches upward of 5.15 million people, and every part of the eastern half of the state is now in some level of drought.
Wilson and Edgecombe counties slid back from moderate to severe drought, and the Outer Banks returned to moderate drought after a few weeks of relief. In Jacksonville, no autumn has begun this dry in 24 years. The mountains have largely escaped, though soil moisture is slowly drying out in shallow areas there.
The North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council, which assigns each county rating on the highest drought level covering at least a quarter of that county’s land, has urged water users in affected areas to cut nonessential use, look at alternative sources and reuse, and put their Water Shortage Response Plans into action. Any system lacking a written plan should use the default cutbacks in state rules when a county reaches extreme drought.
Cooler, more humid weather is in the forecast statewide for the first days of November. A fresh Drought Monitor map is due Thursday.
Filed under: Raleigh NC Weather News
