RALEIGH, N.C. (NCN News) — Many areas in North Carolina received rain over the last week, continuing to ease widespread drought. However, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor report released on Thursday, most of the state is still in moderate to severe drought, with Brunswick County experiencing the worst drought conditions. With many reservoir levels still below normal, the public is still encouraged to conserve water.
Some areas of the state saw near-normal rainfall of about 1 inch in the last week, with larger amounts falling in isolated storms. Radar estimated that nearly 1 foot of rain fell in Surry County over the weekend, causing the worst flooding for that area in nearly 50 years.
Despite recent rains, some reservoir levels are still below average due to the year-long drought, which was caused by below normal rainfall from August 2025 to June 2026. Falls Lake in Durham, Wake and Granville counties is nearly 3 feet below normal. Tanasee Creek, Wolf Creek and Bear Creek lakes in western North Carolina and Lake Norman and Lake Wylie in the Catawba basin remain below target elevations. W. Kerr Scott Reservoir and Jordan Lake are at their target elevations.
Streamflows in the Mountains and Coastal Plain are continuing to improve. Flows in the Tuckasegee basin in Western North Carolina and the Catawba and Roanoke basins in the central part of the state experienced smaller improvements this week.
“A rainy July brought steady improvements in drought conditions across most of North Carolina,” said Klaus Albertin, chair of the North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council and Water Resources Engineer with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources in a press release. “Groundwater and reservoir levels have been slower to recover. It’s only the beginning of August so we expect higher temperatures and increased water demand for at least another month.”
The latest map released Aug. 6, considers data from July 28 through August 4. In that time, areas in eastern North Carolina received over 2 inches of rain, helping to ease the drought in the Coastal Plain. Parts of Rockingham, Caswell, Person, Granville, Vance and Warren counties in Central North Carolina and portions of Macon, Jackson and Transylvania counties in Western North Carolina are in extreme drought, the second worst category. More information on what the classifications mean for water systems and the public is available at ncdrought.org.
For counties in exceptional or extreme drought, water systems are advised to follow their Water Shortage Response Plans and adhere to water use reduction measures. Systems in these areas must report weekly water use and conservation status online at the Water Use Reporting website.