The past two months have been very dry in Georgia, leading to worsening drought conditions, particularly in the northwest and southern portions of the state.

Atlanta recorded only 3.10 inches of rain during the March-April period, the second lowest rainfall ever recorded for the two months. For a drier spring, you would have to go back to 1915, when only 2.36 inches of precipitation fell. Normally, there would be just a tad over 9 inches of rain in March and April — In reality Atlanta has had 9.68 inches of rain so far this year, just over half of normal.

Things were a little better elsewhere in Georgia, with 5.53 inches in Athens (25th driest); 3.64 inches in Macon (16th driest); and 6.39 inches in Columbus (10th driest). However in Waycross, site of the wildfires that continue to burn, they had a scant .15 of an inch of rain in April, and only .67 inches in March for a two month total of .82 inches, far less than the normal 5.7 inches they would expect.

Unfortunately, the prognosis for May doesn’t look very good:

All of Georgia has a 33% chance of less than normal rainfall, according to the updated May precipitation outlook from the National Weather Service. For much of North Georgia, including Atlanta, the odds against normal rainfall go up to 40%.

It’s beginning to look like we will have to hope for tropical weather to break the pattern that’s keeping high pressure over the Old South, and forcing rain to our north. That’s what’s likely to happen with the storms currently over Texas. And, the longer we go without a more normal precipitation pattern, the more the drought will reinforce itself with warm temperatures until something major comes along to break the cycle.

PS: Sorry about the pun in the title of the post. I couldn’t resist.

Posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 10:25 am
Categories: Drought.

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