A week of rainy weather across the Charlotte region has brought the first meaningful improvement to drought conditions in months, according to new federal data released Thursday.
Still, much of the area remains in severe drought after an unusually dry stretch dating back to last year. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map showed Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Union and Gaston counties improving from mostly “extreme drought” to “severe drought” over the past week. Areas of “exceptional drought,” the worst category on the monitor’s five-level scale, also disappeared from North Carolina entirely after widespread rainfall across the state.
Still, forecasters say the recent rain has only begun to chip away at a much larger long-term rainfall deficit, which at its worst was about 17 inches for the region…