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AccuWeather Meteorologist and Social Media Manager Jesse Ferrell covers extreme weather and the intersection of meteorology and social media.
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Weather Blogs / WeatherMatrix
Over 100 inches of rain in North Carolina this year!
Published Sep 18, 2020 9:49 PM EDT
UPDATE 9/23/2020: One other statistic... thanks to William Schmitz at SERCC for helping me dig this up from the data... Highlands has already (with over 107 inches as of yesterday) had more rain than their wettest calendar years, with the exception of six years since 1892 (interestingly, two of those were 2018 & 2019).
Monthly total precipitation for Highlands, NC, sorted by Annual amount (SERCC)
Should they get their *normal* rainfall for the rest of the year, they'll beat all of those records, with over 127 inches making their wettest calendar year ever.
ORIGINAL BLOG 9/18/2020: It's no secret, the South has been extremely wet in 2020 (even before hurricane season). This map from the National Weather Service shows approximate precipitation estimates, leaning heavily on radar data:
Sept. 18, 2020 year-to-date observed precipitation
The red indicates over 40 inches of rain, with purple indicating over 70 inches! Looking closer at actual rain gauge reports, there are a lot of stations reporting over 50 inches!
2020 precipitation 50-inch club
In fact, 12 stations have had over 60 inches of rain recorded this year, with the top amounts listed below:
Stations with over 60 inches of rain in 2020
Highlands, N.C.: 105.11 inches
Sewanee, Tenn. 81.58 inches
Mt. Leconte, Tenn.: 80.60 inches
Caesars Head, S.C.: 78.79 inches
Monteagle, Tenn.: 75.94 inches
Brevard, N.C.: 75.51 inches
The undisputed champion is Highlands, North Carolina, with over 100 inches. This is by far, the highest precipitation report in the nation beating even the notoriously rainy Pacific Northwest, year to date.
Highlands is in the mountains of southwest North Carolina, which receives some of the highest rainfall on average in the nation, owing to orographic effects. Yet the previous record for this time of year at the station was only 86.21 inches, set in 1916.
Highlands, N.C. annual precipitation
They average 78.95" per year, an amount which they exceeded on August 4th, according to data from the SERCC. By September 11, 2020, they had already passed 100 inches.
How did they get to that amount? It wasn't one, or even several big storms. The consistency is also remarkable, it rained almost every day:
Highlands rainfall
My mother can attest to how rainy of a year it's been in the mountains of North Carolina. She lives in Wilkes County, where over 57 inches of rain have fallen, 25 inches more than normal.
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