Looking back at the global teleconnections for this past year North America was in the third year of a La Nina. During the winter months that usually equates to dry weather but in the summer a La Nina can result in a more impactful hurricane season.
When you look back month-by-month, western North Carolina was running within a few inches of normal (either way) in terms of precipitation through the first half of the year. We had an adequate amount of summer convection during the months of June and July. Where we ended up running behind came in August through November. By the summer months we globally began to see an El Nino take over and that made the tropical weather season a lot more “miss” than it was “hit” which dried us out once we got to fall.
September and October in particular were very dry as some locations received less than 2 inches of rain combined for the 60 day period and suddenly we began dealing with drought conditions. After a dry Meteorological Fall, we quickly have reversed things in December as three big rain events have highlighted the month. As a result we are going to end 2023 with locations running within 2-4 inches either side of normal.
Below is a look at the precip departures from normal across the western North Carolina area…
And here is a breakdown of rainfall amounts from COOP sites inside the coverage area with averages in parenthesis. Blue print is above normal, Red print running a deficit…
2023 Precipitation Data
Oxford (Catawba Co.): 46.93 (46.54)
Forest City (Rutherford Co.): 45.88 (52.06)
Hickory Regional Airport (Catawba Co.): 42.76 (42.15)
Lenoir (Caldwell Co.): 52.02 (49.66)
Lincolnton (Lincoln Co.): 51.28 (49.50)
Marion (McDowell Co.): 56.69 (56.58)
Morganton (Burke Co.): 53.13 (51.53)
Shelby (Cleveland Co.): 46.95 (50.40)
Tryon (Polk Co.): 58.21 (64.35)
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