A drought months in the making doesn’t take days to go away. However, the month of July has been helpful. In recent months, we’ve covered drought, burn bans, water restrictions and abysmal lake levels.

Shift in Pattern

So far, the month’s rainfall has far exceeded what we saw all of January, February, March, April, May and June combined. And we’ve done all this without any landfalling tropical systems. We still need more rain to completely get rid of the drought. And a shift in the pattern may just be what the doctor ordered.

By now, you’ve heard a lot about El Niño. This year’s is forecast to be exceptionally strong – if not record breaking. El Niño implies a more active storm track in the Southern and Eastern U.S., which could lead to more opportunities in the weeks and months ahead.

We’ve seen signs of that shift so far this July. Whereas high pressure has led to hot and dry conditions in recent months, it’s now shifted toward the Western U.S. While frequent fronts deliver waves of rain here at home.

It’s not just been rain, though. We’ve had our fair share of severe storms that have led to downed trees, power lines, lightning damage and flooding. Meteorologist Kat Campbell says that level two risks for severe weather have a 85% verification rate so far this month.

The most recent example of that came Tuesday evening, when storms caused damage and even killed a man in Raleigh. The hope moving forward is that we can cash in on opportunities for drought-busting rain while avoiding cleanup in the process.

Original reporting: WRAL Raleigh — read the source article.