Rainfall from Hurricane Isaias offered drought relief to some Western North Carolina mountain counties earlier this month, although nearly half of the state’s counties remain in some stage of a drought that began last year.
The Smoky Mountain News coverage area is either classified as abnormally dry or in a moderate drought.
“October is usually one of the driest months in North Carolina, but it wasn’t the case this year. Much of the state received beneficial rain this month,” said Klaus Albertin, chair of the North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council and Water Resources Engineer with the NC Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources. “Though some reservoirs only saw a modest increase in their water levels, every little bit of precipitation counts as we climb out of this year-long drought.”