CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A National Weather Service meteorologist said Thursday that weather patterns are suggesting August in North Carolina will bear a soggy resemblance to July, when rainfall records were set from the mountains to the coast.
“Late August and September are the peak of tropical season. That wouldn’t be good news,” National Weather Service meteorologist Phil Badgett said. “The pattern has yet to be determined, but at least through the next 30-day period, it looks like a continued wet pattern throughout North Carolina.”
Badgett said while the rains appear set to return late next week, the upcoming weekend will be dry.
“Sometimes, we do have a recurrence of patterns and we might be going through this again. Rain will be above average but not as heavy,” he said, referring to next week and the rest of the month.
The weather service reported Cape Hatteras got 20.31 inches (50 centimeters) of rain last month, well above the normal of 4.99 inches (12.66 centimeters), based on a 30-year average. It’s the wettest July on record and the second wettest month ever, trailing only the 21.40 inches (54 centimeters) that fell on Cape Hatteras in September 1999 due to Hurricane Floyd.
Through July 31, Cape Hatteras had 55.53 inches (1.4 meters) of rain in 2018. The average for a comparable period is 31.01 inches (78 centimeters), Badgett said.
Heavy rains dropped without the aid of a tropical system left local roads covered with water that had no place to go.
“The flooding is very reminiscent of (hurricane) Matthew,” said Sam Walker III, news director for Max Radio and the Outer Banks Voice. “Some of the same homes and businesses that got flooded by that storm in 2015 have taken on water again during the heaviest of storms.”
The Outer Banks Voice reported the rain was a benefit to local businesses. Restaurants reported their best lunch crowds when drenching rain fell on July 23, while liquor stores in Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills combined for $90,000 in sales the same day.
Elsewhere, Wilmington, with 17.10 inches (43 centimeters), and Asheville, with 6.58 inches (16 centimeters), also set records for the month. Charlotte got 5.96 inches (15 centimeters) in the month and Greensboro had 6.04 inches (15 centimeters), both above averages for the month.
Asheville reported 6.58 inches (16 centimeters) in July, well above the normal of 4.31 (10 centimeters). The rains led to flash flooding across portions of the mountains.
Feature file photo: Heavy rainstorm floods Johnson Street in Aberdeen.
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