Drought in North Carolina, April 1 to 30, 2001

Name: Drought in North Carolina, April 1 to 30, 2001
Start: 2001-04-01T00:00
End: 2001-04-30T23:59
Location: North Carolina

April 1 to 30, 2001 · NWS GSP · 29 events in 29 counties and zones

Some relief to the long-term drought occurred at mid-month, but for the most part, the rainfall deficit for the three-year period actually grew larger by the end of April. Mandatory water restrictions continued at a few mountain locations, with voluntary water restrictions urged at many others.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 24 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 29

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS GSP wrote it up.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 31, 9:35 PM EST, 2 hours 25 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 31, 9:35 PM EST, 2 hours 25 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
935 PM EST SAT MAR 31 2001

ONLY CHANGES I PLAN TO MAKE TO THE FIRST PERIOD IS TO RAISE MINS A
COUPLE DEGREES OVER THE UPSTATE AND SOUTHERN NC PIEDMONT AND
FOOTHILLS...AND WL ALSO GO PARTLY CLOUDY RATHER THAN MOSTLY CLOUDY
OVER THE UPSTATE.

THINGS ARE LOOKING RATHER INTERESTING IN THE 12-15Z TIME FRAME.
STRONG VORT DIVES ACROSS THE REGION. AREA OF 8 DEG C 500-700 MB
LAPSE RATES CURRENTLY OVER SRN MO MOVES INTO THE WRN ZONES AT 12Z.
WHILE THE LATEST RUN OF THE MESO-ETA IS ONLY GENERATING PCPN AS FAR
S AS AVL...THE RUC HAS PCPN WELL INTO NRN GA BY 12Z. AM A LITTLE
CONCERNED THAT ELEVATED CONVECTION COULD FIRE IN AREA OF STRONG H5
PVA AS THE VORT SWINGS THROUGH. COUPLE THIS W/SNOW LEVELS FALLING TO
AROUND 4 KT...AND THERE MIGHT BE A BRIEF BUT HEAVY SHOT OF
THUNDERSNOW FOR SOME OF THE MTNS...AND MAYBE A FEW TSRA FURTHER E AS
WELL. WL PASS THIS ON TO THE MIDNIGHT SHIFT..BUT WON/T MAKE NAY
CHANGES ATTM.

FCSTID = 14
GSP   48  62  34  65 /  30  40   0   0
AND   47  63  33  67 /  30  40   0   0
CLT   46  61  32  66 /  30  50   0   0
HKY   46  59  32  63 /  40  60   0   0
AVL   42  54  30  60 /  40  50  10   0

.GSP...
GA...NONE.
NC...NONE.
SC...NONE.

MCAVOY

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

29 drought. Local standard time, as filed.

Drought, Alexander

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Alexander forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.921, -81.177 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Avery

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Avery forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 36.077, -81.922 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Buncombe

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Buncombe forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.611, -82.530 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Burke

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Burke forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

Drought, Cabarrus

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Cabarrus forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.387, -80.552 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Caldwell

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Caldwell forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

Drought, Catawba

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Catawba forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.663, -81.214 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Cleveland

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Cleveland forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.334, -81.556 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Davie

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Davie forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.929, -80.544 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Gaston

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Gaston forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.294, -81.180 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Graham

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Graham forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.350, -83.834 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Haywood

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Haywood forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.556, -82.982 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Henderson

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Henderson forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.336, -82.480 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Iredell

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Iredell forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.807, -80.873 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Lincoln

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Lincoln forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.486, -81.224 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Macon

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Macon forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.150, -83.422 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Madison

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Madison forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.858, -82.706 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, McDowell

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: McDowell forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

Drought, Mecklenburg

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Mecklenburg forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.247, -80.833 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Mitchell

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Mitchell forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 36.013, -82.163 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Northern Jackson

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Northern Jackson forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.287, -83.141 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Polk

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Polk forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

Drought, Rowan

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Rowan forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.640, -80.525 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Rutherford

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Rutherford forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

Drought, Southern Jackson

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Southern Jackson forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.287, -83.141 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Swain

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Swain forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.487, -83.493 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Transylvania

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Transylvania forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.202, -82.798 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Union

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Union forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 34.988, -80.531 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Yancey

When: April 1, 12:00 AM EST to April 30, 11:59 PM EST
Where: Yancey forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 35.899, -82.308 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Drought: A drought reaching severe (D2) or worse on the US Drought Monitor, or with notable impacts.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in North Carolina in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in North Carolina, April 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5241107, 5241108, 5241109, 5241110, 5241111, 5241112, 5241113, 5241114, 5241115, 5241116, 5241117, 5241118, 5241119, 5241120, 5241189, 5241190, 5241191, 5241192, 5241193, 5241194, 5241195, 5241196, 5241197, 5241198, 5241199, 5241200, 5241201, 5241202, 5241203.