Tropical Storm Elsa may have been a good thing for an abnormally dry North Carolina
With only minor flooding and no wind damage reported in the Triangle as of Thursday evening, Tropical Storm Elsa may have turned out to be a good thing for an area that has been abnormally dry throughout late spring and early summer, according to the North Carolina Drought Advisory Council.
As of July 1, 51 counties in North Carolina were rated abnormally dry and six were considered to be suffering moderate drought conditions. With three or more inches of rain falling on most of the state, the advisory council expects most of those counties to return to normal conditions.
Elsa entered North Carolina as a weak tropical storm Thursday morning. By early evening it had dropped 1 to 4 inches of rain across the state and was rapidly moving to the northeast.
Duke Energy reported about 11,000 customers without power around midday, but only about 2,000 were still without power at 6 p.m.
Minor flooding was reported in low-lying areas and along creeks and streams in the Triangle, where as much as 3.9 inches of rain fell, but no serious flooding was reported.
Atlantic Avenue at Hodge Street in Raleigh was flooded and impassable for a while around 2 p.m. but quickly drained after city workers cleared a clogged storm drain.
There were no reports of injuries or deaths due to the storm in North Carolina as of 6 p.m.
The storm left the North Carolina coast largely unscathed as it passed through the middle of the state.
So for much of the state, Elsa came as a relief. North Carolina had its first abnormally dry conditions around April 20, and since then has seen a few periods of moderate drought in several areas of the state, including the Triangle, according to archives published on the North Carolina Drought Advisory Council website.
But since the dry spring, North Carolina’s drought conditions have been steadily improving, according to Klaus Albertin, who chairs the advisory council.
Abnormally dry conditions are defined as conditions in which an area receives less rain than normal for an extended period of time. In those conditions, the advisory council suggests that residents prepare to implement water shortage response plans and to remain aware of drought conditions. Counties that fell under this classification included Orange, Durham, Wake, Chatham and Franklin.
During normal conditions, North Carolina generally receives around 1 inch of rain per week. With less than that, abnormally dry conditions can develop in anywhere between a week and one month.
“It’s been a little unusual, mostly because in the last three years we’ve had record wet conditions,” Albertin said in an interview with The News & Observer Thursday. “We’ve had moderate and severe drought, just for a real brief period. That was unusual because normally, when we get into severe drought, it takes a while to get out of it.”
During the beginning of June, a large portion of the state, including the Triangle, was under moderate drought conditions, and southern North Carolina even saw severe drought in some counties. Then, over a two-week period, approximately 3 inches of rain fell, alleviating those conditions in both the Triangle and in southern North Carolina.
With up to 5 inches of rain forecast for parts of the state, according to the National Weather Service, Tropical Storm Elsa was expected to put parts of the state in normal conditions.
“It’s hard to say right now, but based on the storm path that they’re forecasting, I would expected pretty much Mecklenberg County and northeast of that to clear up, or at least improve one level,” Albertin said.
However, the dry conditions the state has been in may mean that the water won’t be able to seep into the soil, and could increase the chance for flooding in some areas.
“It depends on how much rainfall you get and how often, if you get 3 inches in a week, there’s usually enough time for it to soak into the soil, but today, if we get 3 inches in 24 hours, that could result in some stream and river flooding,” Albertin said.
News & Observer reporters Avi Bajpai and Richard Stradling contributed to this report.
This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 10:27 AM.