Source: Corey Davis, NC CLIMATE OFFICE, 4/5/22


Rain events last month targeted the Piedmont and southern Mountains while missing the coast, which helped drought expand there. Warmer weather – and a few cool nights – were also signs of the spring season.

Amid the Rain, Dry Areas Linger
Spring showers soaked some areas but missed others, making for an overall drier-than-normal month in North Carolina. The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) reports a preliminary statewide average precipitation of 3.85 inches, or our 55th-driest March in the past 128 years.

Compared to February, when incoming cold fronts from the west brought little rain east of the Mountains, the pattern shifted in March and shared the precipitation wealth with more areas.

On March 8 and 9, a stationary front parked over the Carolinas drenched the western Piedmont, including a two-day total of 2.43 inches in Charlotte. Its March 8 daily total of 1.31 inches was the first time Charlotte had more than an inch of rain in a single day since January 3.

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