Climate Summary

Temperature and Precipitation by climate division
Departures from Normal for January 2011
Based on Preliminary Data

January 2011 was cool and dry. While temperatures in January 2011 weren’t as extreme as those in December 2010, they were still the coldest since January 1988. The statewide average temperatures ranked as the 16th coldest since 1895.

Dry conditions in January were more severe than the previous month. Despite several snowfall events, the amount of total precipitation across North Carolina was much below normal. Most of central and western NC received less than 40% of normal precipitation.

Precipitation for January 2011
Based on estimates from NWS Radar
Data courtesy NWS/NCEP

Precipitation for January 2011: Percent of Normal
Based on estimates from NWS Radar
Data courtesy NWS/NCEP

Impacts to Agriculture and Water Resources

The continued dryness has started to impact water resources across the state, especially in central NC. Due to a lack of precipitation, streams are near record lows for this time of the year, and Falls Reservoir — a major reservoir in central NC — has yet to return to full status. The winter period is generally when water resources recharge, and the lack of recovery is cause for concerns. Without the return of more normal precipitation amounts, NC could be facing serious water supply problems come summer.

As a response to the low groundwater, streams, and reservoir conditions, the US Drought Monitor depicts D2 Severe Drought in central NC. The NC Drought Management Advisory Council continues to have weekly technical conferences to review conditions and make recommendations to the US Drought Monitor.

US Drought Monitor for North Carolina
Courtesy NC DENR Division of Water Resources

Winter Weather

Last winter our office released a new and improved "Winter Weather" section to the SCO website. The new pages included features such as a detailed study on a winter weather climatology for NC, in-depth information on both large and small scale atmospheric patterns responsible for winter storms across the state, and a winter storm database searchable by county, date and event type -- which has recently been updated to include the winter storms that took place in December 2010.

You can find all this information and more on our website: http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/climate/winter_wx