By Leah Justice

leah.justice@tryondailybulletin.com

After ending 2015 almost 10 inches above normal rainfall for the year, Polk County is now in the initial classification of drought conditions.

Polk County is currently classified as “abnormally dry,” which is the first drought indication for the county since September 2015, according to the North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council.

So far this year Polk has seen under normal precipitation every month except for February, which was less than an inch above normal, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

A small portion of the county has been listed in abnormally dry conditions since April 5, but the entire county was listed as abnormally dry beginning on April 19, along with most of the rest of the state. Polk is still listed as abnormally dry this week.

Polk County had been completely out of drought conditions since last October until the last two weeks. On Oct. 1, 2015, Polk as well as the rest of the area, saw heavy rainfall, including parts of South Carolina that had flooding and the declaration of a state emergency, particularly in the Columbia, S.C. area.

After seeing a dry year most of 2015, Tryon received 9.35 inches of rain in September; 9.87 inches of rain in October; 10.13 inches of rain in November and 14.56 inches of rain in December — all well above normal for the months.

Prior to the October rains Polk was listed in either abnormally dry, moderate drought or severe drought during the months of June, July, August and September last year.

On Sept. 29, 2015, Polk was listed as abnormally dry and from Aug. 18 through Sept. 22, Polk was listed as in a severe drought. Prior to Aug. 18, 2015, Polk was listed in a moderate drought from June 23 through Aug. 11 and prior to that Polk was abnormally dry from the end of may and into most of June last year. This time last year in April, Polk was not listed in any drought conditions.

So far in 2016, Polk has seen a total of 13.12 inches of rain from Jan. 1 through April 28, according to the NWS. The normal for the first four months of the year is 19.88 inches of rain, according to the NWS. April has seen just 1.4 inches of rain through the 28^th. The normal for April is 4.3 inches of rain for the month.

February is the only month so far this year to see above normal rainfall at 5.61 inches of rain. The normal for February is 4.86 inches of rain, according to the NWS. Measurements are taken for the NWS at the Tryon Water Plant.

Forecasts call for rain this weekend and into next week. Today, Friday, April 29 has no chance of rain, but rain and thunderstorms are forecast for Saturday and Sunday with more rain expected next Tuesday, according to weather.com.

Drought maps can be viewed with weekly updates at ncdrought.org.

 

 

 

 

 

2016 rain totals

Precipitation            Normal

January          4.04                            5.10

February        5.61                            4.86

March             2.07                            5.76

April                1.40                            4.16

 

 

Rainfall by month 2000-2015

Year   Jan    Feb  March April             May   June    July    Aug   Sept   Oct              Nov   Dec   Total

2000	4.59	2.56	6.48	7.56	1.49	2.03	3.67	2.86	4.46	0.02	5.04	3.46	44.22
2001	3.11	3.36	7.56	0.99	4.94	7.25	8.98	4.36	10.56	1.60	2.58	3.84	59.13
2002	4.86	1.91	6.31	3.23	4.43	1.69	2.67	3.69	8.35	6.65	5.66	8.25	57.70
2003	2.33	5.69	8.56	7.87	11.72	8.03	12.11	9.68	3.27	3.04	6.17	4.82	83.29
2004	1.72	6.06	1.66	2.71	3.76	6.05	5.23	4.41	18.88	1.52	7.84	6.55	66.39
2005	2.94	3.42	5.99	5.33	4.75	13.07	10.13	4.64	0.52	5.53	3.73	5.49	65.54
2006	5.18	1.70	1.10	3.19	1.77	8.66	2.61	7.30	8.29	5.90	4.57	7.39	57.66
2007	6.82	2.50	5.83	2.88	2.13	2.85	2.88	1.24	2.74	3.29	2.43	6.97	42.56
2008	2.36	4.22	6.06	4.33	2.22	1.35	3.04	7.83	3.38	3.32	1.50	5.63	45.24
2009	3.93	1.72	7.99	4.75	7.72	3.88	2.08	4.74	10.09	6.33	7.35	9.77	70.35
2010	7.87	4.40	4.29	3.24	3.83	5.18	0.68	7.26	4.79	5.19	3.40	3.60	53.73
2011	2.29	2.60	11.35	5.10	3.41	3.89	1.12	5.27	6.21	2.71	6.05	6.82	56.82
2012	4.21	1.31	3.39	4.12	9.50	2.50	7.90	5.45	4.92	4.70	0.56	6.24	54.80
2013	9.17	4.48	4.85	7.69	11.30	9.25	20.05	6.72	2.96	1.90	5.90	7.85	92.12
2014	3.98	3.16	4.41	6.26	3.42	6.51	6.97	5.79	3.32	4.28	6.27	3.51	57.88
2015	4.47	3.53	3.08	6.23	1.04	4.73	1.59	3.38	9.35	9.87	10.13	14.56	71.96

 

 

 

Monthly normal precipitation (in inches)

January	5.10
February	4.86
March	5.76
April	4.58
May	4.57
June	5.38
July	5.27
August	6.18
September	5.38
October	4.65
November	4.80
December	5.24

Total: 61.77 inches