11:38 – Barbara left early to drive down to Winston, where she’s running errands and meeting friends for lunch.
One of things I like about this area is the reliable rainfall. We’re not quite literally in a temperate rainforest, but almost. The usual definition is at least 55 inches (140 cm) of rain annually, with no dry season and moderate temperatures. Sparta averages 52 inches (132 cm) of rain annually, but otherwise fits the definition. The rainfall is also pretty evenly distributed, with an average of two days per week with measurable precipitation, averaging about 0.5 inches (1.27 cm) each. When we were looking at homes in next-door Ashe County, I asked our realtor about droughts. His response was that they’d had a dry spell ten years or so ago, but shortage of water wasn’t generally much of a problem there. If anything, the converse.
We had 2 inches (5 cm) of rain yesterday, bringing us up close to 30 inches year-to-date. Our electronic rain gauge says we’ve had only 21.52 inches YTD, but relative to our physical rain gauge it reports only 70% to 75% of what we actually get. So, while much of western North Carolina is in abnormally dry to severe drought conditions, those of us in the Blue Ridge up near the Virginia border are doing fine, as usual.
What that means in terms of prepping is that I’m comfortable with 30 days’ worth of stored water. Even if we couldn’t get water from our well, we’d be fine until the next rain came along.