Extreme drought conditions now encompass most of Burke County

The bright red portion of the North Carolina Drought Management’s map of the state started as a thin, crimson streak across the southernmost counties, but has steadily inched northward over the last few weeks. 

It now encompasses most of Burke County.

Bright red indicates areas classified as D3 – Extreme Drought Conditions. Only one level, D4 — Exceptional Drought — is worse.

Since Sept. 1, the beginning of climatological fall, the county is experiencing the third driest autumn in 130 years, Assistant State Climatologist Corey Davis said recently.

As a result, Duke Energy, which monitors stream flows and reservoir water levels along the Catawba-Wateree System, has asked residents to conserve water.

 Since Nov. 2, Duke has designated the current drought at Stage 1 on a scale of 0-4. That means users were asked to voluntarily reduce consumption by 3-5%.

A new report from Duke was due out Friday, but had not been released at press time. City of Morganton Water Resources Director Brad Boris said earlier this week the city would look at that report and make adjustments accordingly. 

If drought status is upgraded to Stage 2, mandatory restrictions would be in place. The protocol, which is followed by most municipalities along the chain, including the City of Morganton, would limit water users to two days per week or less of irrigation, and would ask them to reduce overall usage by 5-10%.

Even though the county received some rainfall last week, Burke still faces a significant precipitation deficit.

“Morganton had a decent rainfall last week, with 1.78 inches total on Tuesday and Wednesday,” Davis said. “That did cut into the seasonal rainfall deficit a bit, but it's still pretty sizable at this point. 

“Since the beginning of climatological fall, Morganton is now 6.84 inches below their average rainfall. Prior to the rain, that deficit was exactly 8 inches, so it came down by a little over an inch. 

“Even though that sounds like a pretty minimal improvement, that is still the type of event we'll be looking for more of this winter, because a long, soaking rainfall can be very beneficial for soil moisture and stream levels, and certainly for wildfire containment as well. We just need to stack up more of those one- to two-inch events, ideally at least once per week, in order to keep chipping away at that deficit.”

Last week’s rainfall was enough to allow the N.C. Forest Service and Burke County to cancel burn bans on Friday, Nov. 22. The bans had been in place since Nov. 5. Even with the restrictions in place, numerous woods fires flared up, taxing local fire departments and the Forest Service.

Davis said the rainfall totals for the month of November would end up being substantially below normal. “It looks like Morganton will finish November with 1.93 inches of total precipitation, which would be 1.82 inches below the normal monthly total (3.75 inches),” he said. “That would rank as the 43rd-driest November on record there since 1893.”

By comparison, last November saw the county receive 7.51 inches of rain, making it the sixth wettest November ever recorded locally.

Davis added this November is still not the driest in recent years. In 2016, when another severe drought led to an onslaught of forest fires, only 1.03 inches of rain fell.

The climatologist said there may be some relief on the way, however.

“Another round of rain is possible later in the weekend or early next week, and it could bring more substantial amounts of possibly an inch or greater,” Davis said. “Although things could also change between now and then, it's certainly looking like December will start off wetter than November did, which should be an encouraging sign both for drought recovery and for the winter ahead.”

NOTE: More info about the drought can be found online at North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council (ncdrought.org). 

Marty Queen is the senior reporter for The Paper. He may be reached at 828-445-8595 or at marty@thepaper.media.