North Carolina, 2001

Drought in North Carolina, December 1 to 31, 2001

December 1 to 31, 2001 · NWS GSP · 29 events in 29 counties and zones

Very little active weather during December signaled that the drought was still present - and becoming critically important to more and more people. 23 inches of rainfall during 2001.

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.

Very little active weather during December signaled that the drought was still present - and becoming critically important to more and more people. The Charlotte area recorded an all-time record dry calendar year with just 26.23 inches of rainfall during 2001. Records have been kept in the area since 1878. Many communities initiated either mandatory or voluntary water restrictions. At Kings Mountain, NC - a new pump was required at Lake Moss because the water level dropped below 2 of the 3 existing pumps. Record low ground water supplies, lake levels, and stream flows were reported across all of Western North Carolina.

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 Nov 30, 9:28 PM EST, 2 hours 32 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Nov 30, 9:28 PM EST, 2 hours 32 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
928 PM EST FRI NOV 30 2001

02Z SFC ANALYSIS PLACES SLOWLY EASTWARD MOVING BNDRY STILL WEST
OF CLT WITH AXIS OF LWR 60S DWPTS & LOW CLDS ACRS MUCH OF THE CAROLINA
PIEDMONT. A QUICK PEEK AT INCOMING 00Z ETA LEADS ME TO BELIEVE THAT
A CONTINUED BUT GRADUAL MIXING OF DRIER AIR EASTWARD BEHIND BNDRY WILL
OCCUR ACRS MY EASTERN ZONES OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL HOURS. THEREFORE...
GOING ZFP GENERALLY ON TRACK. WILL PROBABLY MAKE SOME TWEAKS TO
RDF AFTER CHECK OF 10 PM OBS.

FCSTID = 55
GSP   49  73  46  66 /   0   0   0   0
AND   47  73  46  66 /   0   0   0   0
CLT   50  72  46  65 /   0   0   0   0
HKY   46  68  42  61 /   0   0   0   0
AVL   42  67  40  60 /   0   0   0   0

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

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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 11:59 PM EST
Where
Burke forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER

Drought, Cabarrus

When
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 11:59 PM EST
Where
Caldwell forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER

Drought, Catawba

When
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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, Davie

When
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 11:59 PM EST
Where
McDowell forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER

Drought, Mecklenburg

When
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 11:59 PM EST
Where
Polk forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER

Drought, Rowan

When
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 11:59 PM EST
Where
Rutherford forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER

Drought, Southern Jackson

When
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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)

Drought, Cleveland

When
December 1, 12:00 AM EST to December 31, 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)

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

More

Every storm in North Carolina in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in North Carolina, December 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: 5275836, 5275837, 5275838, 5275839, 5275840, 5275841, 5275842, 5275843, 5275844, 5275845, 5275846, 5275847, 5275848, 5275849, 5275850, 5275851, 5275852, 5275853, 5275854, 5275855, 5275856, 5275857, 5275858, 5275859, 5275860, 5275861, 5275862, 5275863, 5275864.