There’s still a moderate drought in Wake and surrounding counties, and abnormally dry conditions have been reported in eastern counties of North Carolina, the N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council reported Thursday.
A moderate drought advisory affects some counties in the northern Piedmont: Alamance, Chatham, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Harnett, Lee, Orange, Person, Vance, Wake and Warren.
[It’s rained a lot, but there’s a moderate drought in Wake, surrounding counties..] Last week’s advisory reported abnormally dry conditions in the Piedmont and the northwest Coastal Plains.
Thursday’s advisory included abnormally dry conditions in Hyde, Tyrrell, Dare, Chowan, Perquimans, Pasquotank, Camden and Currituck counties.
There’s a moderate drought in Wake and surrounding counties and abnormally dry conditions have been reported in eastern counties, the N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council reported Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017.
N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council Camila Molina: 919-829-4538, @Cmolina__ Never miss a local story.
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News Release – LOGAN, UTAH – On the same day that global leaders wrapped up an international water and climate summit in Rome, researchers published new findings that suggest European drought trends are lining up with climate change projections.
Their study, published Oct. 25 in Scientific Reports, shows that two major drought indices are deviating from one another across Europe in a manner consistent with climate change simulations.
"This is one more big drop in the bucket toward climate change attribution," said lead author James Stagge, a post-doc at Utah State University’s Utah Water Research Lab.
"There have been a lot of projections, but now that we’re starting to see the projections and observations line up, it’s not a question of ‘is it happening?’
The spatial patterns observed by Stagge and his team match climate change projections for Europe that suggest decreases in drought frequency in the north and increases in drought frequency in the south.
"Once you add in the temperature increases for all of Europe, you have all the hallmarks of climate change," Stagge said.
Stagge explained that although one drought index captures this concept, the other does not.
"When you include evapotranspiration, the border from where it’s getting wetter to where it’s getting drier is pushing farther and farther north," he said.
This increasing deviation in European drought frequency is observed from the 1980s until today.
In a stationary climate, Stagge and co-authors say they would expect this difference to be randomly distributed and stable like it was from the 1950s through the 1970s.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.
(WWLP) – After a stretch of some very dry and sunny weather, western Massachusetts finally got some much needed rain Tuesday.
“It came down gradually during the morning and kinda started that pre-soak and then it really came down last night with the thunder and lightning but I think most of it went in the ground,” said Tom Calabrese of Calabrese Farms in Southwick.
“I think we needed it but it’s destroying the foliage a little bit but it’s Mother Nature, we never know what to expect,” said Tammy Glynn of Westfield.
All the rain we got is helping to raise the level of area rivers.
Last week’s drought monitor put most of Hampden County and a small part of eastern Hampshire County in the moderate drought category and while we did have a rainfall deficit with many areas picking up between 2.5 to 4.5 inches of rain, we now have a rainfall surplus of over 2 inches.
A new drought monitor will come out Thursday but it won’t include the rain we just got.
That will be reflected in next week’s report.
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He said that about 160 million gallons of water have been added to the reservoir through the drought management measures that were implemented, including mandatory water restrictions, operational changes at RWSA and a reduced amount of in-stream flow release required by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
“We have seen usage decline from day to day,” Mawyer said.
“Where it normally averaged about 10 million gallons [a day], we have had a few days down to 8 [million gallons a day], so we attribute that to the mandatory measures.” Typically, 8 million gallons of water from the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir per day is treated at the South Rivanna Water Treatment Plant, and about 2 million gallons of water from the Ragged Mountain Reservoir is treated at the Observatory Water Treatment Plant per day.
RWSA is now treating no more than about 5 million gallons per day at both water treatment plants.
The minimum in-stream flow release requirement from the DEQ is usually about 10 million gallons per day at the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, and since Oct. 10, RWSA has been releasing about 2 million gallons per day.
Part of that plan is a water pipeline between the Ragged Mountain and South Fork Rivanna reservoirs.
It will take between three and four years to get the alignment finalized and the property easements acquired.
RWSA is considering increasing that to 10 million gallons per day.
That expansion would cost between $10 million and $15 million.
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CHICOPEE, Mass.
(WWLP) – Well, it is windy and the rain has picked up.
Cars are taking their time out here, and the main concern with this rain is minor street flooding.
Getting much needed rain all at once is never a good thing.
It can create flooding under bridges and around your home, under gutters clogged by falling leaves.
As for the ground and our yards, we could use the rain and every drop of it.
John Duda of the Class Grass Garden Center told 22News, “We desperately need the rain, we don’t want to go into 2018 with a drought.” According to the US Drought Monitor, we need the rain.
Most of western Massachusetts is in the “abnormally dry” category, and Hampden County is in a moderate drought.
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But our analysis suggests that the possibility of extreme drought is increasing in the Western Cape.
This means that it is possible that man made climate change has contributed to the severity of the current drought, and even though it is an extremely rare event, similar droughts may not be rare in the future.
Predicting rainfall for the rest of the country – which gets its rain in the summer – is relatively straightforward because rainfall is related to El-Niño and La Niña episodes.
Season’s rainfall can be forecast using dedicated climate models.
For example, seasonal rainfall forecasts for June – August 2016 and 2017 from the South African Weather Service predicted a higher chance of wetter conditions compared to that of normal or drier conditions.
Forecasts by the world’s premier seasonal forecast institutions European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, also failed to provide an accurate forecast (here is the former’s forecasts for 2016 and 2017, latter’s for 2017).
Looking ahead There is good evidence to expect similar, possibly more severe, and likely more frequent drought events in the future, in Cape Town, but also in other cities.
This definitely requires making Cape Town’s water supply system more resilient by expanding to water sources that are less drought-prone, such as groundwater, desalination and water reuse.
What’s needed is a flexible management strategy for supply and demand to reduce the impact of future (possibly multi-year) droughts and avoid disasters in a way that’s cost-effective to water users.
Piotr Wolski, Senior Researcher in Hydro-Climatology, University of Cape Town; Bruce Hewitson, SA Research Chair in Climate Change, University of Cape Town, and Chris Jack, Senior researcher The Climate System Analysis Group, University of Cape Town This article was originally published on The Conversation.

But four years of drought have overtaxed Israel’s unmatched array of desalination and wastewater treatment plants, choking its most fertile regions and catching the government off-guard.
"No one imagined we would face a sequence of arid years like this, because it never happened before," said Uri Schor, spokesman for Israel’s Water Authority.
The Sea of Galilee, technically a lake near the border with Syria, is forecast to hit its lowest level ever before winter rains come, despite the fact that pumping there was massively reduced.
Underground aquifers, the other main freshwater source, are nearing levels that will turn them salty.
How to cope with the crisis is becoming an increasingly touchy subject in Israel.
Proposed cuts to water use for the coming year, more than 50 percent in some areas, prompted vehement opposition from farmers, who already face tough restrictions and would have been the hardest hit.
The government quickly backtracked.
In the Middle East, one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change, water is also the subject of wider tensions.
The commercial sector invested another 7 billion shekels into the construction of five desalination plants.
The lack of reliable waters supply leaves farmers with deep uncertainty.

But four years of drought have overtaxed Israel’s unmatched array of desalination and wastewater treatment plants, choking its most fertile regions and catching the government off-guard.
“No one imagined we would face a sequence of arid years like this, because it never happened before,” said Uri Schor, spokesman for Israel’s Water Authority.
The Sea of Galilee, technically a lake near the border with Syria, is forecast to hit its lowest level ever before winter rains come, despite the fact that pumping there was massively reduced.
Underground aquifers, the other main freshwater source, are nearing levels that will turn them salty.
How to cope with the crisis is becoming an increasingly touchy subject in Israel.
Proposed cuts to water use for the coming year, more than 50 percent in some areas, prompted vehement opposition from farmers, who already face tough restrictions and would have been the hardest hit.
The government quickly backtracked.
In the Middle East, one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change, water is also the subject of wider tensions.
The commercial sector invested another 7 billion shekels into the construction of five desalination plants.
The lack of reliable waters supply leaves farmers with deep uncertainty.

SAN ANTONIO – Stage 1 drought restrictions which have been in effect since the summer are no longer in effect, effective immediately, San Antonio Water System officials said.
Rains and cool weather have sent the 10-day Edwards Aquifer average above the trigger of 660 feet for 15 days, and levels seem to be stable, officials said.
Due to the improvement in the aquifer levels, SAWS President/CEO Robert Puente advised San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Sculley that ending the drought restrictions would be appropriate.
Related: Stage one drought restrictions announced for San Antonio While the city is returning to year-round watering rules, residents can save money on future sewer charges by reducing their water use over the next few months.
Winter averaging calculates the average of water used in three billing cycles between November and March to set customers’ sewer charges for the rest of the year.
More information on winter averaging, including billing cycles, visit saws.org/WinterAverage.
Additional information regarding year-round water use is available at saws.org/drought.

"The combination of tropical moisture nearby and an approaching non-tropical storm will unleash locally heavy rain on much of Hawaii at the start of this week," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski.
The moisture will reach areas that typically do not receive much rain when the northeast trade wind prevails.
Motorists and pedestrians around Honolulu should be prepared for the downpours that can lead to street and highway flooding during Monday and Monday night.
Localized flash flooding may occur in the many rural areas on the islands.
Locally gusty winds will also accompany the rain.
"While the heavy rainfall will cause some complications, it is much-needed overall."
Honolulu has only received about 15 percent of its average rainfall since Sept. 1.
Downpours produced 1.80 inches of rainfall in the city on Aug. 29.
The setup early this week could bring rainfall that matches or surpasses that mark.
People heading to or departing from the islands should anticipate airline delays early this week, due to the stormy conditions.