Another dose of rain in the Southeast region has brought more areas of the state out of drought conditions, according to the newest national drought data.
Rain and below-normal temperatures helped reduce rainfall deficits, improve soil moisture and increase water levels in steams and lakes. However, about 66% of the state is still experiencing drought conditions, data from the National Integrated Drought Information System shows. Almost 6% of the state is still in severe drought.
“The general consensus is that it is getting better,” said Nick Morgan, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.
The areas of severe drought in nearby metro Atlanta counties include Clayton, Henry, Fayette and south DeKalb, as well as Rockdale and Walton. Areas of Oconee County, along with Oglethorpe and north Hall counties also remain in severe drought.
Those areas were missed by the last bit of rain that fell mostly in the south and central parts of Georgia, Morgan said.
Fall is generally the dry season in Georgia, so it is not unusual to see drought conditions. But deficits created by incredibly hot temperatures and zero rainfall in the summer have made it that much harder to recover, Morgan said.
The conditions have created a mixed bag for farmers, said Pam Knox, agricultural climatologist for University of Georgia Extension. “Overall, the rain we have been getting for the last few weeks has definitely helped,” she said. But for some crops it came too late.
Hay producers are at the end of the growing season and are left only with what they have from earlier in the year. That means they will have to get rid of cattle or buy hay or some combination of both, said Knox.
Recent weather has helped other crops such as wheat and oats that are planted in the fall, she said.
In total, harvest season has been going quite well and is ahead of schedule, including crops such as peanuts that were having early troubles because the ground was so hard during the drought, Knox said.
“Overall, things are looking better. As plants go dormant they aren’t using as much water and as temperatures go down we don’t have as much evaporation. We almost always see drought decreasing over the course of the winter,” Knox said.
This weekend, temperatures in the metro area will be in the upper 50s with the next chance of rain coming midweek, according to NWS forecasts. That offers another chance for drought-impacted areas to recover.
“We expect the severe drought to drop in the future,” Morgan said. “Hopefully we are coming out of the drought phase now.”
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