Went looking for a weather related topic but couldn’t find one, so I’m starting one in the Pub.
These latest bouts of storms have eased the crisis at Falls Lake and Raleigh’s water supply a bit. According to the lake level almanac at WRAL, the lake has added about a foot of water in the last week or so. This is great news, but we aren’t out of the woods just yet, and remain well below the normal level.
The watershed for Falls Lake is relatively small.
While north of RDU the rainfall data for RDU tells the story.
That recent flatline will look better when the current 7/20 data is updated with this week’s rain. But we need some near-miss hurricane rain this Fall.
Finally we are trending in the right direction! Another good crack at beneficail rainfall both tonight an tomorrow. Runoff should keep pouring in Falls Lake and hopefully we can add another 6-12" to the water level by the time this system is off the coast.
Is there comparable data for Lake Wheeler/Benson? I know they’re only a 10th of the water supply but a lot more of the rain seemed to fall south of RDU.
I don’t trust WRAL’s rainfall graphs at all. They’ve been flatlined for months and that’s just not true.
So you are a drought denier? 
Used to be able to get these very same graphical data tables directly from RDU weather.
But they are no longer available. Thank you Trump.
No, but their chart shows no rain for months, and that’s not objectively true. In fact, they don’t show any rain recently. Their website sucks.
This is the best source for live/real-time water data:
The anecdotal “dome effect” that seemingly pushes storms north (and/or south) of us (and RDU) means the Falls Lake watershed area may be receiving significantly more rainfall than us.
Also reservoirs are sensitive to recency events once the soil is rehydrated. Recovery can be fairly swift.
Looks like Falls Lake peaked 247.5’ which is a 3-foot gain from the rain over the last 2 weeks. We’ll take it!
It is nice that Falls Lake is rebounding. However, as a (hydro)geologist, it will take months (maybe years) for groundwater levels to rebound. We see it in our monitoring wells all the time. I had a site in Sanford, NC years ago where I had a 30 foot deep well that was almost dry one sampling event, then would have 19 feet of water in it 6-months later, then drop back down to 25+ feet depth-to-water the next sampling event. At the same site I had a well that would be 11-feet depth-to-water, then the next time would be artisanal (free flowing). This site had the most extreme fluctuations I have ever seen.
But looking at water levels at sites over the course of years, there can be several feet of GW fluctuations over time (creating a “smear zone” for contaminants), and it always lags wet vs dry seasons. Extreme long term events (like we’re in now) tend to take a long time to recover to “normal” levels.
Good insight and thanks for sharing! I guess soil compostion in diffferent areas has a great impact on these types of things i.e. how permeable the soil is? I guess I worded it correctly?
It’s raining over the Falls Lake watershed again.
Not a ton of rain in DTR but the lightning and wind canceled my fun at the Red Hat.
Wake County has moved to the moderate drought from severe drought in the last week. Also, due to recent rains, Falls Lake has risen substantially and is triggering the removal of water restrictions starting in early August. | U.S. Drought Monitor
