I live in Littleton on Lake Gaston and would like to know the average rainfall for this area. My rain gauge shows we have had approximately 19.33 inches so far this year (up to 9:00 pm Fri. Oct 26th)and I am wondering how close we are to our yearly average. Since we have well water, this information is very important to us.

MIKE MOSS SAYS:     Patricia,   Normal yearly rainfall for your area is about 45-47 inches, and that would equate to around 35-40 inches of rain by this point in the year. According to combined radar and gauge estimates, your area has gotten around 20-25 inches so far this year, not far off from your gauge reading (especially if you got more rain the evening of the 26th into early the 27th, which many parts of the region did). This is roughly 60% or so of normal rain for the year to this point. Regarding well status, you might mike to keep an eye on the data available through this address:

http://www.ncwater.org/Data_and_Modeling/Ground_Water_Databases/Drought_Indicator_Wells/

There is a Division of Water Resources groundwater monitoring well in the Littleton area, but as I write this the last observation is from August 1st, at which time the well was in the lowest 10th percentile of historical readings. Some downstream wells to the east (Roxobel and Lewiston) with more recent observations are showing the lowest levels on record, although they have been nearly as low in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2005.