Current Impacts
To see or report current drought impacts, please visit the Drought Impacts Toolkit, where you can find impacts from media in the Drought Impact Reporter and from citizen scientists and other volunteer observers under Condition Monitoring Observations.
Historic Impacts
No two states have the same experience during a drought. Below are examples of some of the impacts experienced in North Carolina in the past. The process for developing this example impact table is described in Noel, M., Bathke, D., Fuchs, B., Gutzmer, D., Haigh, T., Hayes, M., Poděbradská, M., Shield, C., Smith, K. and Svoboda, M., 2020. Linking drought impacts to drought severity at the state level. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101(8), pp.E1312-E1321. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0067.1. To view a more complete record, and to filter impacts by drought severity, sector and season, check out the interactive State Impacts Tool.
| Category | Examples of historically observed impacts |
|---|
| D0 | Lawns are brown |
| Pastures are dry; mild crop stress is noted; irrigation increases |
| D1 | Crop stress increases |
| Hay production is reduced; producers feed hay to cattle early |
| Increased signs of wildlife; trees and landscape are drought stressed |
| Streamflow is reduced; lake and reservoirs levels decline |
| Voluntary water conservation begins |
| Wildfire danger is higher than the seasonal normal |
| D2 | Dryland crop yields are low |
| Swimming areas and boat ramps begin to close |
| Voluntary and mandatory water use restrictions are implemented, people are asked to refrain from nonessential water use |
| Wildfires are difficult to extinguish |
| D3 | Aquatic wildlife is dying; fewer trout are stocked |
| Hay is scarce, producers are purchasing outside of state; nitrate levels in forage are high |
| Hydropower generation decreases |
| Landscaping and greenhouse businesses lose revenue |
| Outdoor burn bans are implemented; wildfires are widespread |
| Voluntary conservation is requested even in sufficient water level areas; mandatory restrictions become more severe and fines are given to violators; stream levels are extremely low |
| D4 | Daily life is affected for all citizens; people pray for rain; drought education seminars increase |
| Epizootic hemorrhagic disease is widespread in deer |
| Producers sell cattle; hay shortages and crop loss occur; farmers are stressed |
| Reservoirs are low; officials are counting the days of remaining water supply; well water is low; residents are hauling water |