Too Little Rain to Break Drought

The drought hung tight as, week after week and month after month, the skies refused to release even the slightest amount of moisture. Not since the 1933 through 1934 warm spell was there a drought like this in North Carolina.

Raleigh, the state capital, has escaped the worst of the drought that has been affecting the prime farming and lake regions in a more significant way.

Years ago both Raleigh and Durham built reservoirs to provide drinking water in dry times like these. These reservoirs give the area three to six months of drinking water in the event of no rain. No one is quite sure what happens after that.

The reservoirs were originally built when the cities of the central part of the state were far less populous. Raleigh was quite a little state capital and Durham was a small manufacturing city.

Growth came to this area not because of the reservoirs, but because of a boom in technology that continues unabated today. Jobs brought people. With more people, schools either expanded or were built. Having trained people brought more jobs. More jobs attracted more people. And so the circle has gone so that the cities here are growing so fast that they are outstripping even the best planning.

The water reservoirs were planned at a time there were fewer people, less lawn watering and fewer industrial users. Reservoirs that might have held a year's worth of water now contain six months or less.

No one knows if this year will be as dry as predicted. If it is, we will all get a chance to see exactly how good the water planning is! If the weather moderates a bit, we will have all dodged a bullet.

Two inches of rain fell in the region last week. That leaves the region short by just under twenty inches of normal rainfall. The two inches had a very small impact on ground water as it fell quickly to the ground leading most of it to run off. The run off did replenish reservoirs with a little on the top. This still leaves the reservoirs well below where the water managers would like to see them.

For the farmers in the region, the rain was too late to save the corn, hay and tobacco crops from failing. Unless they had another source of water, the rainfall was little more than a tease.

As a backyard gardener for years, I always feel badly when plants die due to lack of water. As a backyard gardener, it only hurts my feelings. For the farmers and arborists of the region, it is impacts their ability to make a living.