{"id":561316,"date":"2026-04-03T02:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/561316\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T02:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:07:15","slug":"drought-worsens-across-western-carolinas-with-mountain-areas-hit-hardest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/561316\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought worsens across western Carolinas, with mountain areas hit hardest"},"content":{"rendered":"

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows conditions continuing to deepen across the western Carolinas. Some of the most significant changes are centered in the mountains of North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. <\/p>\n

Across the Greenville-Spartanburg forecast area, nearly 42% of the region is now in extreme drought, while about 97% is in severe drought. This represents a sharp increase from last week, when about 25% of the area was in extreme drought, highlighting how quickly conditions have changed.<\/p>\n

In North Carolina, about 9.6% of the state is now in extreme drought, up from roughly 4.7% last week. The state’s share in severe drought or higher categories has increased from about 65.5% to nearly 89.4% over the past week. <\/p>\n

CREWS BATTLE DOZENS OF NEW NORTH CAROLINA WILDFIRES AS DRY WEATHER FUELS SPREAD<\/a><\/p>\n

In South Carolina, extreme drought now covers about 20.2% of the state, up from 15.7% last week, while severe drought or higher categories have expanded from approximately 58.6% to 62.9%.<\/p>\n

While rainfall has occurred at times, it has not been sufficient to offset the growing deficit. The last rainfall surplus in Asheville was in August 2025. Since then, monthly rainfall amounts have been below normal. Deficits have accumulated to more than 11 inches from September 2025 to March 2026. <\/p>\n

Across the Southeast, longer-term precipitation deficits ranging from roughly 8 to 20 inches below normal have continued to build.<\/p>\n

Additional rainfall is expected in the coming days. The National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center indicates most of the Southeast will receive between about one-half inch and two inches of rainfall over the next week. These amounts may provide some short-term relief but remain limited compared to the existing deficit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows conditions continuing to deepen across the western Carolinas.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-561316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}