Well, as the month of August wraps up, you know, we have had another roller coaster of a month, weather-wise. We have seen temperatures in the hundreds. We’ve seen low temperatures in the 50s. We’ve seen eight or nine inches of rain in one day. We’ve seen a half an inch of rain in a week. It has been a complete roller coaster. We have State Assistant Climatologist Corey Davis here to kind of sort all of this stuff out. So, let’s take a look at the month of August, Corey. Give us a little recap, and let’s just make sense of all the craziness we have seen so far this month.
“You know, Kyle, I think when we look back over this summer, each month has given us a signature moment or a main event. Back in June, it was that hot start to the month where we saw that drought continue to get worse. And then finally, we saw some rain later in the month. Of course, July was defined by that heavy rainfall that we had over about a week toward the end of the month. And then when we look at August, I think it’s going to be the heat that really stands out.
“Looking at the temperature rankings for the month so far, we see most of the Carolinas are on pace for one of their top five warmest Augusts on record. That includes down in Charleston, South Carolina, where they are tracking as their record warmest August. Other places like Raleigh are in the top five. Charlotte is in the top 10 warmest on record, and with the forecast looking through the middle of next week, I think those numbers will probably stay pretty steady in that warmest tier.
“But also, we know we’ve had some spotty rains across the Carolinas over the last few weeks, including just this past week, especially down along our southern coastline. We look at the Wilmington area. They are on track for their third-wettest August on record. They had more than eight inches of rain over the past week. What makes that especially remarkable is that they’ve gotten all that rain without really any tropical influence. There were no hurricanes that added on to those totals. It has just been those repeated, steady, heavy rain events that they’ve gotten over those past few weeks that have made it such a wet month there.
“But the good news is not that good everywhere. We know other parts of the Carolinas have missed out on that heavier rain so far this month. Raleigh’s only had about an inch. When we go up along the Virginia border, we see places like Roanoke Rapids, Reidsville, also barely an inch of rain so far this month, and just on the other side of the border in Danville, Virginia, they’ve only had about half an inch. So, we know that there have still been some dry spots out there. And that’s why when we look at that U.S. Drought Monitor map, we do still see those areas of severe and extreme drought. Places that have just not seen that relief over the last month are continuing to struggle with that drought and its impacts.”
So, I know the farmers are going to be asking, like I said, we had all that rain in July, we’ve had some spotty areas of rain here in August. What has that done to the soil moisture and farmers being able to get some crops in?
“It really depends on where you go across the Carolinas, especially some of those areas down along the southern coastline of North Carolina that saw all that rain over the last week and that are running as one of their wettest Augusts on record. The soil is probably a little bit too wet there to really be able to work in, but again, that is overall good news, knowing that some of those row crops really needed that rain this month to be able to help finish them up for the growing season.
“When we look at other parts of the state, especially up along the Virginia border, even out in parts of the southern mountains and also going down the coastline in South Carolina, we do still see that those soil moisture deficits are fairly strong. We have not seen the sort of recovery and recharge like we might have hoped for over those last few weeks. There is at least another shot of some rain this weekend, so we’ll see what we can get out of that. But again, that’s why we do still have drought on the map, even though we’ve had some small improvements this week, like in some of those southern coastal areas.”
All right, let’s take a look at the tropics, and we hear a rumor that there is the fourth named storm, and this one is not only working nine to five. Give us a little update about that.
“That’s right. This feels appropriate given this week and what we’ve had in the news. We can say, ‘Hello, Dolly,’ because there is Tropical Storm Dolly out in the Atlantic right now. It formed yesterday, not a very strong storm and expected to only remain a tropical storm over the next few days.
“And then what are we looking at after that? Well, Dolly is going to be having a close call with some of the Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico. But as it gets closer to the Caribbean, we know that has been a no-go zone for tropical storms this year. Conditions have been very unfavorable. We’ve seen that upper-level wind shear that has torn those storms apart, so it looks like probably by Sunday Dolly will dissipate. We will not have to worry about Dolly making its way into the Carolinas. It will be a fairly short-lived system like we’ve seen from the other storms in the Atlantic so far this year, but again, we do have that fourth named storm now to watch.”
The timing is just, I hate to use the word ironic, but with everything going on in the news, and prayers to Dolly Parton’s family, but to have Dolly as the next named storm on the list and it literally formed like a day or so after she passed away. I mean, I know the list is every six years, so we had Dolly six years ago, but it just seems to be an interesting timing of the named storm.
“Yeah, remarkable coincidence, like you said. These names only recycle every six years. This has also not been a very active year, so it’s not like we’ve been coming up with storm after storm. So, to have this one storm with this one name the same week as we’ve been remembering Dolly Parton.”
All right, well, let’s take a look at the forecast. I know we’ve been looking at some rain going into the weekend, but what are we going to see coming out of the weekend?
“That’s right. We saw those showers start last night. We’ve seen a cold front that’s been pushing in from the west. That front will reverse course, and it’ll start pushing back north as a warm front through the day tomorrow. That means we expect to keep that chance at least through most of the day on Saturday, maybe overnight into parts of Sunday as well.
“Looking at those forecasted rainfall totals, I think areas further west, like out across the foothills of North Carolina, may be lucky to get half an inch from this event, but areas further east, including some of those parts of the South Carolina coastline that are still in severe and extreme drought, they could fare the best. They could end up getting an inch or more out of this system.
“And after that, I know we’re going to be in September, but it will feel like summer because we’ve got the heat coming back on. We’re looking at high temperatures making it back into the mid-90s by early next week. And looking at some of the longer-range forecast, that heat may stick around through at least Labor Day weekend. So again, it will be a very summer-like start to September. Hope that heat doesn’t last too long because, you know, September means we want to start feeling those crisp fall nights. We don’t want to be dealing with the heat anymore.”
Well, with the heat outside, you can catch some football. You can pull up a Tim Curry movie, however you want to do to enjoy the air conditioning before we get into September.