Source: Lisa Sorg, NC POLICY WATCH, 10/28/19


The drought map looks ominous. In spots, western North Carolina is as dry — or drier — than the same areas during the record-breaking drought of 2016. It was that year on Nov. 6, when the Chestnut Knob fire ignited in Burke County — then, as now, experiencing a moderate drought — burning more than 6,400 acres over three weeks. The fall fire season has arrived, and not just in California, where wind-whipped blazes have forced the state’s utility to cut power to more than two million people and tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated.

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