Drought's grip appears to be loosening

Drought conditions are improving in Alleghany and statewide, according to information released March 11 by the North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council.

While a small section of far western Alleghany County remains in severe drought, most of the county has improved to a moderate drought. Drought classifications begin at D0, or abnormally dry, and progress to D4, exceptional drought. The U.S. Drought monitor focuses on broad scale conditions and local conditions may vary, the report states. A new report is compiled on Tuesday each week and becomes available for viewing on Thursday.

As of March 4, the entire county was listed as being in severe drought and a small section of the southwestern end of the county was in extreme drought. In addition, a large portion of the state was rated as being in exceptional drought, the most severe reportable drought conditions. Those areas had improved to extreme drought as of March 11.

In addition, much of the state's coastline has now reached the lowest form of drought, abnormally dry.

The total shortfall of precipitation is about four inches, which is the amount needed to bring rainfall totals back to normal said Jim Hudgins, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Up to another inch of rainfall was forecast for Wednesday, March 19.

"That could help bring additional improvement to the drought picture," said Hudgins.

The current improvement marks the best progress made toward ending the drought since a large rainfall that was recorded in late October 2007 brought the eastern portion of the county into the moderate drought classification after most of the county had been in extreme drought through most of the summer of 2007.

March has been a particularly wet month, which has helped ease the drought's impacts. According to information from Hudgins, a total of about four inches of rain has fallen in Alleghany County this month.

"Some spots may have had as much as seven or eight inches of rain this month," he said. "Some of the upslope areas that get more southeast winds seem to have received the most rain."

The long range forecast shows continued improvement to the drought outlook for the county. The forecast, which was released March 6 and provides the outlook through May, shows the likelihood of drought improvement to continue through the period in this part of the state. Some improvement is expected to drought conditions statewide, but less in the hardest hit areas through the center of the state.