Is North Georgia In a Drought?
Blog reader Morgan commented that he is concerned that North Georgia is entering a drought period. Looking at recent rainfall statistics, it certainly seems that way.
For March, Atlanta had 1.31 inches of rain, compared to a normal 5.4 inches: only 24% of normal. Here in Lawrenceville, we did a bit better, with 2.05 inches, but still way below what one would expect (and the year to date totals are equally miserable).
Actually, the situation may not be as bad as it looks. Here is the current drought situation in Georgia, as of March 27th:
All of Georgia is considered abnormally dry, with the northwestern corner of the state in a drought — although not Atlanta. This is about the same situation that we were in back in October, 2006.
The outlook though isn’t as bad as it might seem:
While the short range looks bad (at least through the end of April), the longer range prediction for soil moisture at the end of June is that we will be in the normal range. And, Northeast Georgia is getting more rain than Atlanta is, which means that the Chattahoochee and Lake Lanier are getting replenished.
Meanwhile, it’s time to run the sprinklers, but keep in mind the current watering restrictions.
As far as my estimate in the previous post of an inch or two of rain, it obviously didn’t happen. Most of the heavy rain stayed in South Georgia, which wasn’t expected at the time I was trying to figure out what we might have gotten over the weekend.
I’m going to stand by my prediction of much colder than normal weather for this weekend. The Climate Prediction Center is now calling for a killing frost as far south as the Atlanta area between Wednesday and the next Monday. As of the time I write this, the low for Sunday morning is predicted to be 34 degrees — just above freezing.
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