By admin 
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — The highest level of drought has returned to North Carolina.
Read more Sinner opens French Open against wild card as he chases a career Grand Slam
One week after exceptional levels, called D4, were eliminated from the state, they have returned to an area just southeast of Boone in the North Carolina mountains.
Now, 65 percent of North Carolina is in extreme drought, including the majority of central North Carolina.
And, 97 percent of the state is in severe drought, with only a small region of far northeast North Carolina being under a moderate drought.
It would take a foot to 14 inches of rainfall in one month to completely end the drought conditions locally.
Read more ‘Right place, right time’: NC teens speak out after saving woman from burning car
We don’t have that much rain on the horizon, but we do have the best widespread rain chances we’ve seen in a while.
Showers are forecast to return Thursday afternoon and continue on and off through the next 10 days.
Models are suggesting as much as 1 to 2 inches or more across all of central NC, with heavier amounts back towards the mountains under the D4 drought levels.
Read more NC community sends positive energy to teen baseball player after cardiac arrest