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The Southeast Drought
10/11/2002
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, this is Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. By now, most Americans know that the West
has been facing severe dry weather, but the lack of rainfall is just as serious in parts of
the Southeast. Leda Hartman reports on how the drought has devastated farmers in North
Carolina.
Three-quarters of North Carolina counties have been declared Federal disaster areas. Worse hit
is the Central Piedmont, which has had only half to two-thirds of it's normal rain fall this
year. In Chatham county, one of the state's top producers of livestock, the drought has
stymied feed crops like hay, corn and pasture. It has forced farmers to sell some cattle early
and to buy extra hay and water to maintain the rest. Sam Gross, the local agricultural
extension agent, says the drought is starting to affect the water table.
SG: We have a farmer in the county, a poultry and beef cattle farmer, who was having to ration
out the water to his chicken houses, went to dig a new well and has dropped a hole on his farm
over 800 feet deep and it was dry all the way down.
This is the fifth year in a row that parts of North Carolina have faced a below average
rainfall. Gross says the situation is worse than most people realize because the dry weather
could interfere with food production. Now, he wants something he never thought he'd wish for.
SG: Most of us in agriculture, we're hoping for a hurricane. At least a tropical depression to
come and sit on us for three or four days. We need it now.
Hurricane forecasters however, have recently lowered their estimates of the number of tropical
storms expected this year. In Pittsboro, North Carolina, I'm Leda Hartman for The Weather
Notebook.
The Weather Notebook is produced with support from Subaru and The National Science Foundation.
Check out today's program and lots of other stuff at our website, weathernotebook.org. The
Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory.
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