Blustery? Yes. Wet? No.

We've had so many run-ins with severe weather this winter that it seems as if we should've gotten plenty of rain. But that hasn't been the case.

A trend has developed in the last two months, and it's not the kind of trend we want.

Storm systems largely have followed a track north of the Carolinas. While clusters of showers and thunderstorms -- and, occasionally, large areas of moderate to heavy rain -- have started moving toward the Charlotte region, they've fizzled out before arriving.

A couple times, moisture in low pressure systems headed toward the western Carolinas was "robbed" by the development of thunderstorms over the Gulf of Mexico. Those storms blocked the transport of moisture into the Carolinas, and we were left with paltry amounts of rain.

And twice in the last week, areas of heavy showers and thunderstorms have rolled across the Mid-South but have disintegrated when they moved into North Carolina's mountains. Only .06 of an inch of rain fell from the system that moved through Charlotte late Wednesday and early Thursday.

We finished February with 1.3 inches of precipitation, which is a bit more than 2 inches below average for the month. January precipitation, 2.28 inches, was 1.13 inches below average. So for the year, we've received about 55 percent of what we normally get.

Another storm system is predicted to rattle the Midwest and South on Friday and Saturday, and once again, we could get little or no precipitation from it.

The cold months of the year are when groundwater supplies typically are built up, so our farms and lawns can handle the Southern summer heat. There's plenty of time to get the rain, but the pattern will have to change.