Fall's colors are starting to blush the edges of the lake here at the Philpott Overlook. Water looks a bit low/normal for this time of year.
Corps stresses the facts: One big rain can’t fix a drought!
A week ago, October 25th-27th, relief appeared to be arriving in North Carolina and South Central Virginia as a major wet weather system blessed parched areas with a long, soaking downpour. Cameras throughout the region captured wings of water spray flying up from car wheels and shining beads of water dripping from pine needles. Dry stream beds bubbled merrily with water and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water control managers anxiously watched lake levels creep up—just a little.
Mike Moneypenny, of the National Weather Service, called the welcome rain a ‘Rogue Storm,’ technically described as a ‘cut off low’ that became stalled by surrounding pressure patterns and stayed put to drop rain for an unusually long time. Then Moneypenny said, ‘nothing more is coming!’ The drought is not over.
“We all bought time with this rain,” said Wilmington District’s water control manager Terry Brown. “The Corps lakes have all benefited, but none are back up to guide curve, and stream flows are already dropping back.” To give an idea of the extent of the benefit from this rain, Brown showed the region-wide water management group a series of graphs charting the forecast downward trend of water in the lakes. After a brief bump upward from the rain, the graphs all are expected to sink back down, reaching their before-the-rain level on different dates depending on how much benefit the lakes had received and the types of uses expected for the water.
Philpott Lake rose 2.3 feet, but will be back to its pre-storm level by about December 3 if no more rain arrives.
“Long term forecasts continue to indicate that a dry winter and spring still could lie ahead of us,” said Wilmington District Water Control Manager Terry Brown. “We and all those who depend on the water in these lakes are grateful that we have some added time to find the best way to stretch our resources,” he said. “But we recognize that we got a little breathing space, not a rescue!”
A week ago, October 25th-27th, relief appeared to be arriving in North Carolina and South Central Virginia as a major wet weather system blessed parched areas with a long, soaking downpour. Cameras throughout the region captured wings of water spray flying up from car wheels and shining beads of water dripping from pine needles. Dry stream beds bubbled merrily with water and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water control managers anxiously watched lake levels creep up—just a little.
Mike Moneypenny, of the National Weather Service, called the welcome rain a ‘Rogue Storm,’ technically described as a ‘cut off low’ that became stalled by surrounding pressure patterns and stayed put to drop rain for an unusually long time. Then Moneypenny said, ‘nothing more is coming!’ The drought is not over.
“We all bought time with this rain,” said Wilmington District’s water control manager Terry Brown. “The Corps lakes have all benefited, but none are back up to guide curve, and stream flows are already dropping back.” To give an idea of the extent of the benefit from this rain, Brown showed the region-wide water management group a series of graphs charting the forecast downward trend of water in the lakes. After a brief bump upward from the rain, the graphs all are expected to sink back down, reaching their before-the-rain level on different dates depending on how much benefit the lakes had received and the types of uses expected for the water.
Philpott Lake rose 2.3 feet, but will be back to its pre-storm level by about December 3 if no more rain arrives.
“Long term forecasts continue to indicate that a dry winter and spring still could lie ahead of us,” said Wilmington District Water Control Manager Terry Brown. “We and all those who depend on the water in these lakes are grateful that we have some added time to find the best way to stretch our resources,” he said. “But we recognize that we got a little breathing space, not a rescue!”
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