Drought Monitoring

Here is a link to the Drought Monitor website,which is a risk management
tool to convey current and predictive information about drought conditions
throughout the U.S. This link is for North Carolina. In the table, there
are a number of drought levels given for each time frame over the last year.
The numbers in the table are the percent of area in the state (shown on map)
that are experiencing that drought type. It looks like the current area in
exceptional drought (46.2%) and extreme drought (78.6%) has changed ± 5%
since last fall. Of course 100% of the state is still in severe drought
conditions: Drought Monitoring

The good news from this map is that many of the counties in Western NC have moved from Exceptional drought conditions to Extreme drought conditions, but the bad news is that the areas east of us, where our larger urban markets are located, have actually gotten dryer; moving from Extreme drought conditions to Exceptional drought conditions. The uncertainty of the weather is very real and it behooves us all to develop solid, research based, risk management strategies!

Waver: Do not open and read this website if you are prone to panic attacks!

For more information contact your local Cooperative Extension Center and ask for the Commercial Horticulture Agent.