(RALEIGH) -- Parts of North Carolina are still in a drought despite receiving rainfall throughout the spring. National Weather Service hydrologist Mike Moneypenny said the rainfall numbers are deceptive.

"We had a good January and February but as the spring wore on, especially over the eastern two-thirds of the state, the pattern was such that the rainfall that we were getting was falling in the northwest, basically on the mountains and falling into the foothills but then as the systems moved into the piedmont we saw some scattered shower activity along with our tornado outbreak and so forth," said Moneypenny.

Moneypenny said the driest conditions are in the coastal plain region of the state, followed by southern parts of the piedmont.  He added that even the southwestern portion of the mountains is starting to show signs of drought.