Drought in Wilkes, North Carolina

Exceptional Drought conditions improved to Extreme Drought conditions across Wilkes county through early to late June after several rainfall events. Drought conditions lingered however, after the previous several months of March, April, and May recorded precipitation totals of 8.00-10.00 inches, which ended up being 50 to 75 percent of normal for that period. These dry conditions combined with the dry fall conditions leading up to below average rainfall in November, December, and January, contributed to a rapid decrease in groundwater and soil moisture in this region, where observed values for each had fallen to at or below the 10th percentile for groundwater, and 5th to 20th percentile for soil moisture in the first 0-100 cm based off the NASA SPoRT LIS data estimated on the 30th of June. Streamflows similarly decreased across the area. This included the Yadkin River, which was observed to be in the 10th to 25th percentile per the USGS WaterWatch website and, in some cases, were near record-low flows.

Extreme Drought conditions worsened across north central North Carolina, and Exceptional Drought conditions improved to Severe Drought in northwest North Carolina in the middle of June after the previous several months of March, April, and May recorded precipitation totals of 6.00-8.00 inches, with locally lower totals of 2.00-4.00 inches, and locally higher totals of 8.00-10.00 inches. This ended up being 50 to 75 percent of normal for that period, with locally lower percentiles in the 10 to 25 percent of normal. These continued dry conditions combined with the dry fall and early winter conditions leading up to below average rainfall in November, December, January, February, March, April, and May contributed to a continued decline in groundwater and soil moisture in this region, where observed values for each had fallen to at or below the 10th percentile for groundwater, and 2nd percentile for soil moisture in the first 0-100 cm based off the NASA SPoRT LIS data estimated on the 16th of June. Streamflows similarly decreased across the area. This included the Yadkin, New, and Dan River basins, which were all observed to be around the 10th percentile per the USGS WaterWatch website and, in some cases, were near record-low flows.