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Can someone please explain to me why this morning while watching various news channels I am being told that the huge amount of rain we saw yesterday and the good amount we saw the day before and the rain we are sure to see today and tomorrow will do nothing for the drought situation?
Why the negative outlook? On my drive to work this morning I saw visible signs of streams, rivers, ponds being higher than they were a few days ago.
All the storm drains I see around here say "Flows to Neuse River" so I'm thinking all the run off from all over the area plus what actually fell from the sky & into the river itself. It's gotta help. I think we're going to need a ton more days like this to make a dent tho.
Can someone please explain to me why this morning while watching various news channels I am being told that the huge amount of rain we saw yesterday and the good amount we saw the day before and the rain we are sure to see today and tomorrow will do nothing for the drought situation?
Why the negative outlook? On my drive to work this morning I saw visible signs of streams, rivers, ponds being higher than they were a few days ago.
Just curious as to what everyone thinks?
The drought didn't begin a month ago. in fact we are down almost 15 inches in the eastern piedmont of rain since the first of the year. Yes 3 or 4 inches of rain is about a 10% improvenment, BUT you have to hope the pattern of rains on a weekly basis continues. If we go dry again in three weeks we will be right back to pre rains of yesterday and today.
If you go to the army corps websites and look at inflows to falls Lake and jordan lake from the rains you will be amazed at HOW LITTLE went into them. The ground soaked up an awful lot of water.
Continue to conserve. In addition look at this report
Well, our current deficit for YTD is over 8" still, and the 2" we've received thus far will not come close to closing that gap. What we need are a few fronts in a row like this. The first one (i.e. - this one) is bringing some much needed moisture and will help to saturate the ground. However, since so much will be absorbed by the ground, there won't be a tremendous amount of runoff from the basins into the reservoirs. Once the ground is wetter, less absorption of the rainfall will lead to better creek flow and more water in Falls, Jordan, etc...
Also, keep in mind that 5 months ago we were ahead of the YTD average, so the past 5 months have been dryer than the YTD shortage really indicates.
Can someone please explain to me why this morning while watching various news channels I am being told that the huge amount of rain we saw yesterday and the good amount we saw the day before and the rain we are sure to see today and tomorrow will do nothing for the drought situation?
Why the negative outlook? On my drive to work this morning I saw visible signs of streams, rivers, ponds being higher than they were a few days ago.
Just curious as to what everyone thinks?
The rain certainly helped, I would not characterize it as doing nothing. However, we have a long way to go. As the other respondents said we didn't just get into a drought and one rainstorm of several inches is not going to get us out of it. But man it sure is nice to see it raining again!
They say this so people dont jump and start thinking its over. Of course ANY rain we get helps and actually this week alone is supposed to be about 5.5 inches. Dont let the news bother you on this, they do this everywhere. Kinda like glass is half full thing...
Siler city is almost dry. You would think they would dig the lake DEEPER NO?
Apparently, the reason why they cannot dig the lake deeper is because the lake sediments are contaminated from run-off upstream (e.g. heavy metals from roads, etc...). Without the dam, these sediments would simply wash down the river into the ocean. But the dam causes these sediments to settle to the bottom of the lake, and eventually you end up with a concentration of contaminated sediment at the bottom of the lake. They could dig the lake deeper, but they don't have a place to dump the contaminated soil.
This is a common problem with reservoirs that are downstream of population. However, the water quality in the reservoir is unaffected unless the sediment is disturbed.
Thanks for all your responses!! They all make a lot of sense.
I guess the bottom line is that we should all pray this kind of rain comes again and again for a while!
Amen to that!
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