Scientists Predict Climate Change to Cause More Droughts, Flooding in Carolinas

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Experts warn the Carolinas will face droughts and deluges in coming years.

Scientists, farmers and water managers met in Charlotte recently to explore ways to deal with coming dry weather and the sudden flooding that the experts say will become more common, The Charlotte Observer reported.

They cited the extensive flooding in South Carolina last October that was the worst weather disaster to hit the state since Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Also noted was the Louisiana rainfall this summer of more than 2 feet in three days.

“In the long view, climate is going to be a very challenging problem for water resources. Too much, too little, wrong times,” said Susan White, executive director of the UNC Chapel Hill’s Water Resources Research Institute.

She said in the short term, bursts of heavy rain are “going to cause a lot of problems, and that’s flooding. We’ve seen this in Charleston and in North Carolina on the coast.”

Duke Energy manages the Catawba and other rivers in the Carolinas that supply water to 2.5 million people and has noted increasingly sparse rainfall since the late 1990s. Rain also falls with more intensity, in just hours instead of days.

Carolinas water utilities are working on long-range water forecasts, conservation measures and drought response plans.

Evaporation takes an estimated 300 million gallons of water from Catawba reservoirs on a hot summer day. If local temperatures rise 3.2 degrees by 2065, water loss would go up by 33 million gallons daily.