We saw lots of rain in July, but we have not seen much rain in August so far. This is why we have not seen big changes with our latest drought monitor. A front is expected to bring some better totals over the next handful of days. Let's break down our expected totals to start the weekend and how much we could see through next week.
July gave us some very beneficial rain. We saw over a foot, and this helped to put a significant dent in our drought conditions.
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August, though, has not brought as much rain. We have only seen about 0.35" of rain total. In fact, the past three weeks have been the third driest July 30 to August 19 on record with just under a three inch deficit.
There is some good news, though! The cold front approaching our area today is expected to stall, and that will not only bring better rain chances later today, but possibly even more rain to end the coming week.
Rainfall totals through Saturday range from around an inch to as much as four to five inches in some of our far southern spots. Some spots towards Wilmington and parts of Brunswick county could see up to three to four inches.
When we shift to the next seven days, the totals are even higher for eastern North Carolina. While Brunswick county gets higher totals, our northern spots are only expected to get up to 1.5 to 1.75" of rain. It will take a lot more rain than that to really put a dent in the extreme drought that lingers in our northern spots.
Let's hope that in addition to near-term rain, we can continue to see rain through September to keep us from falling back into the drought. Up to 1.5 to three inches of rain over the next week locally would really help our deficit.