We’re so dry here in Asheville and Western North Carolina that we’re actually hoping for a tropical storm to come our way. That’s the tone, at least, of a number of news stories that are looking at the possible path of Tropical Storm Fay, which is due to hit Florida later this week. Everyone’s rushing to the weather-guessers for the 4-1-1:
Here are a few story links:
Forecasters say Tropical Storm Fay could bring much-needed rain this week to the ease drought conditions in the mountains of western North Carolina.
National Weather Service meteorologist John Tomko in Greer, S.C., said the storm’s track could bring several inches of rain to the mountains if it stays on its current track. Tomko said the storm was expected to be over the mountains of southwest Virginia by Friday.
Tropical Storm Fay could bring substantial rain by the end of the week and help ease growing drought conditions in western North Carolina and South Carolina, forecasters said Monday.
After hitting Florida, the remnants of Fay were expected to arrive over western South Carolina by Friday morning, but the amount of rain it will bring is hard to gauge, said National Weather Service meteorologist Doug Outlaw in Greer, S.C.
Outlaw said some groundwater levels are at historic lows and “a big rain like this could give great benefits to the lakes and reservoirs and the ground water.”
The five-day forecast for rainfall projects 10 inches or more in the Charleston to Savannah area, Outlaw said. The projection currently is 2 to 3 inches over the western Carolinas, but three times that could fall “if it were to come straight up and across the western Carolinas,” he said.
Tropical storms are good drought busters, said Doug Miller, an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.
“We would almost have to have a repeat of the fall of 2004 to have a hope to get back to normal, and that was an exceedingly rare event,” Miller said, referring to the year when remnants of two hurricanes caused extensive flooding in western North Carolina.