Source: NC CLIMATE OFFICE, 5/20/21


Moderate Drought conditions emerged in southeastern North Carolina last week, which was a rude reminder that it’s been a while since we’ve dealt with drought. A wet 2020 that carried over into a surprisingly wet winter this year meant flooding and saturated soils have been the bigger problems over the past 18 months.

Among the North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council — the group in charge of monitoring drought in the state, issuing drought advisories, and making recommendations to the US Drought Monitor — a common refrain earlier this year was that “it’s been so wet for so long, we’ve forgotten what dryness looks like.”

Indeed, amid these hydrologic heydays — we previously hadn’t been in drought since November 19, 2019 — it has been easy to forget exactly how drought events can take shape and what impacts they can have, especially during the spring and summer months.

We hope this post isn’t a preview of how bad things will get this year, but more of a primer for what past droughts at this time of year have meant for North Carolina.

Read through this full FAQ, or skip ahead to see where drought has already emerged, what impacts we expect soon, how you can prepare, and how bad historical spring and summer droughts have gotten — and how they’ve ended.

For more of this story, click here.