Taking a look back at August now, as we wrap up this month, which has certainly had its ups and downs weather wise in the Carolinas, I’m Mike Davis, talking with Corey Davis from the State Climate Office of North Carolina.

“Well, Mike, when we look at the month as a whole, obviously that one event, tropical storm Debby, really stands out, and that has driven the majority of our precipitation for the month. And when we look at the monthly rankings here, with just a couple days to go, it is on pace to be one of the top five wettest August on record, especially for coastal areas like Charleston and Myrtle Beach and New Bern again, these are places that had eight, 10, 12 inches of rain from that one storm. So that alone was going to make sure it was a pretty wet month. But also looking at our temperatures for August. You know, we’ve had some pretty hot weather this week, in the mid to upper 90s in some areas, but we’re still looking at overall close to normal temperatures for the month. You think back to especially when Debby was moving through some of those earlier weeks. It’s some pretty cool and cloudy days mixed in there. So even with that recent heat factored in, still looks like it’ll be a pretty much average August in terms of temperatures in the Carolinas.”

Yeah, such a big difference when you have a storm like Debby come through, it really. It really skews things, doesn’t it?

“It really does. And again, thinking about our average precipitation at this time of the year, somewhere in that four to five inch range in most areas. Well, there’s parts of eastern North and South Carolina that saw more than double that amount just from the one system. But you know, I think for the farmers, they’re not minding that break from the rainfall over the past couple weeks, one big concern coming into August, and even back in July, coming out of that drought, was whether the hay crop would recover. It was so dry for so long that that really slowed the development a lot of that hay growth. But what we’re hearing, especially in North Carolina this week, is that in the places where the hay has managed to keep on going, it’s in pretty good shape, and that third cutting of hay now is right on track, right on pace with that historical average. So I think the rain that we have seen back in July and also earlier this month, and also now, some of those drier weather has been pretty cooperative. And you know the old saying, Mike, make hay while the sun shines. That’s what the farmers are doing out there right now.”

Talk about that forecast now, and it really has been heating up. Any relief in sight?

“We’re seeing a little bit of relief today. There’s a weak cold front that’s sneaking in from the northeast, so that’ll at least drop the high temperatures down to the low 90s. We won’t be in the mid to upper 90s like we’ve been over the last couple days, but the real relief looks like it’ll be on the way by Labor Day or maybe next Tuesday. There’s a cold front that’s coming in from the west, that’s going to bring in a lot cooler and less humid air mass. So by Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, the forecast highs are only around 80 degrees. That’s not quite the first taste of fall for the year, but it certainly gets us a little bit closer to where we normally are as we head into the first part of September.”