Some Hail In Cary & Beneficial Rains Continue

This evening I finally made my first Skywarn Spotter Report to the National Weather Service. For about 2-3 minutes there was dime to close to penny sized hail falling in my backyard. It didnt last long and it was sporadic but there was definitely hail. I was also scanning the Skywarn frequency for this region and there was pea to dime sized hail near Crossroads Plaza and Tryon and Piney Plains Rd in Cary. There was some severe weather reported all across the region. The lightning was incredibly vivid during these storms. Sunday made the third day in row of significant rains across the Triangle especially at the official reporting site of RDU International Airport. Here are the totals for the last three days and some other stats:

Friday July 4: 0.62 in.
Saturday July 5: 0.86 in.
Sunday July 6: 0.85 in.
3-day Total: 2.33 in.
2008 Total Through July 6: 23.40 in.
2007 Total Through July 6: 18.15 in.
Normal Through July 6: 22.33 in.

That makes precipitaiton for 2008 above normal levels at RDU. Last year at this time we were close to 4 inches below normal. This type of rain does help the drought but you got to remember that some of this rain from thunderstorms runs off and does not really play a role in the drought categories. Any rain helps though as long as we do not go into some long dry period again as we head into the rest of July and August.

We have a chance of showers and storms tomorrow again. I am not quite as positive on the chances as I was for Saturday and Sunday, but there will definately be activity going on in the afternoon and evening with heavy downpours/ lightning/ possibly some hail and strong winds. The chance becomes less middle of the week but its not zero so that is always a positive! Can we make it 4 days in a row of significant rain in the Triangle area?