11.22.05

It’s still a drought. It’s just a chilly, wet drought now.

Posted in North Carolina at 8:54 am by mshiltonj

We had some good rain over the past day or so, a welcome relief since we are in a severe drought.

The N&O reports on how the recent rain affects our water supply:

By this morning, the Triangle will have absorbed about 2 inches of rain, enough to push Falls Lake up two-tenths of a foot and stave off any tougher water restrictions in Raleigh.

But the region still needs another 7 inches to climb back up to normal levels — several storms’ worth of water.

I had to laugh at the way the reporter described the change: two-tenths of a foot?! Who measures anything like that? Why not say, “about two and one half inches?” People understand that. What is “two-tenths of a foot” — some bizarre mesh of both imperial and metric systems?

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1 Comment »

  1. Anton said,

    December 3, 2005 at 4:10 am

    I guess it’s because altitudes are almost never given with inches; one sees “87.3 feet above sea level” rather than “87 feet 4 inches”.

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