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Dryness Creeps Back in During September

drought

Aug 1, 2014

Mild Weather, Arthur Headline July 2014 in NC

Overall, July in North Carolina was cooler than normal with a mix of dry and wet spots, including parts of the coast that were visited by Hurricane Arthur. Below-Normal Temps Prevail Across NC Last month was the 11th-coolest July in 120 years of record in North Carolina based on the preliminary statistics, which made it…

Jun 19, 2014

Lay of the Land: The Current State of Weather and Ag

This guest post by Dr. Mike Yoder with NC State University’s Department of Animal Sciences looks at the impacts of weather and climate on agriculture. President Ronald Reagan once noted that “the American farmer is in a business that makes a Las Vegas craps table look like a sure thing.” The President understood that weather,…

Jun 4, 2014

Spring 2014 Started Cool, Finished Warm in NC

This is the second post in our 2014 summer outlook series. Today we review our spring temperatures, precipitation, drought, and severe weather. Statewide Average Precipitation: *13.08 inches (34th-wettest since 1895) Statewide Average Temperature: *56.77°F (30th coldest since 1895) * Values generated from preliminary numbers A Relatively Cool Spring Overall Wintry weather persisted through the early…

Apr 25, 2014

High-Resolution Drought Monitoring

Earlier this week, we talked about how drought is monitored and why spring is a good time to take a step back and evaluate how we’re doing, moisture-wise. Today’s post will be dedicated to a useful drought monitoring tool the State Climate Office of North Carolina has developed. The Need for High-Resolution Drought Monitoring Drought…

Apr 22, 2014

Monitoring and Predicting Drought

This is the first in a multi-part series looking at drought. Before we cover some the drought tools we’ve developed, we thought it might be best to provide some basics on drought monitoring and prediction. Drought is a part of North Carolina’s climate, defined as a deficit in normal precipitation for a region over a…

Apr 4, 2014

Lingering Wintry Weather Throughout a Cool March

With the arrival (finally!) of warmer temperature across the state during this first week of April, many may be quickly leaving the memory of March — with its cooler temperatures and winter storms — in the past. Before we get too far into April, we thought we’d ask: how did March 2014 stack up against…

Nov 12, 2013

Cloudy Weather But Little Rain in October

Monthly statistics for October 2013:Statewide Average Precipitation: 2.34 inches (51st driest since 1895)Statewide Average Temperature: 60.08°F (22nd coldest since 1895)* Values generated from preliminary numbers Cloudy October Tempers our Temperatures You may have noticed October seemed a bit on the cloudy side in your area, especially toward the beginning of the month. This begs the question —…

Oct 22, 2013

Summer Projects: Palmer Drought Severity Index

This post is part of a series highlighting the summer projects from our office’s undergraduate research assistants. The fourth part of this series is by Melissa Mainhart, a junior majoring in Meteorology and minoring in Computer Programming at NC State. Over the course of the summer I have been working on calculating the Palmer Drought…

Oct 9, 2013

Dryness Creeps Back in During September

Monthly statistics for September 2013:Statewide Average Precipitation: 3.00 inches (36th driest since 1895)Statewide Average Temperature: 69.1 degrees (42nd coolest since 1895)* Values generated from preliminary numbers Cool Temperatures Continue Much like the summer months, September was marked with temperatures on the cooler side of normal — 0.3°F cooler statewide, to be more precise. While most individual locations…