It’s been about a month since the remnants of Hurricane Debby came through North and South Carolina. Let’s take a look at what’s happened in those four weeks or so since then with climatologist Corey Davis, the Assistant State Climatologist of North Carolina. Corey, if I’m not mistaken, we got Debby, that came through with all that rain, but we haven’t had a lot since then.
“That’s right, Mike. And you know, we’ve seen a little bit of everything in terms of temperatures since that storm. We had some nice fall like weather back in mid-August. We had the heat return at the end of August, and it’s been a little more seasonable over the past week or so here in the early September, but in terms of precipitation, not a whole lot of moisture to talk about since Debby, most of eastern North and South Carolina have had less than two inches of rain over the past three to four weeks, and there’s some areas that have only looked at maybe half an inch to an inch of rain over That time, so we had a lot of moisture, obviously, all at once from the storm. I’m sure nobody was too disappointed to have a few dry weeks after that, but it’s getting to the point now where the farmers especially are starting to look for a little bit more rain to help with some of their crops. As we near the end of the growing season, South Carolina, for instance, we got reports that the soybeans are in pretty good shape. They’re setting the pods now, but they are looking for a little bit more rain to help finish those soybeans off for the season.”
It’s really been that kind of a summer, hasn’t it? It is either feast or famine.
“It sure has been. You know, we look back at what happened at the beginning of summer, we were pretty wet in May. We only had a week or so of a good window for farmers to get in the field, in the beginning of June, before it started getting too hot and too dry. And then we flipped right back to the wet side in July and early August. Now it seems like maybe shifting back toward the dry side a little bit. You think about Goldilocks. You know, it’s either too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry. Those farmers can’t get that just right field condition that they would like to have, especially this time of the year.”
Debby primarily affected the middle parts of the Carolinas and the east. What’s happening over in the western parts of North and South Carolina?
“Well, they have also been in that dry pattern over the last three to four weeks, but as you said, Mike, they did not have that moisture from Debby to fall back on when we started getting into this recent dry pattern. So this week, most of the mountains in North Carolina are in at least abnormally dry conditions. Parts of far Southwestern North Carolina are now in moderate drought, and in northwestern South Carolina, they’re looking at moderate and even a small area of severe drought in Pickens County, again these are places that finished up the summer, six to seven inches below their normal rainfall and that was both because of the June, drought, but also just not getting as much rain back in August.”