We have seen continued, slow improvement in the drought across the northern half of the state over the past week. The most recent update from the US Drought Monitor includes the heavier rain we saw from October 27-30. As a result, drought conditions have overall eased up, especially over the northern half of the state.
On the whole, the area of the state in at least a D0 dropped from 91.46% to 88.37%, a solid 3% reduction mainly over northeast and parts of northwest Georgia. Total rainfall from the past 14 days reflects this change. Some spots in Northeast Georgia have seen over 4″ of rain in that time, more than enough to erase any drought concerns for a while.
Further south the worst hit areas in west-central Georgia have picked up on average 1-2″. This has been enough to nearly eliminate the D3, or extreme drought. Only parts Coweta, Fayette, Meriwether, Pike and Spalding Counties remain in this category. For the state as a whole the D3 area decreased from 27% to 21%. Extreme South Georgia remains in a widespread, extreme drought that shows no signs of improvement anytime soon.
Looking at the past 90 days, you can easily pick out the areas in the worst shape. The zone from Atlanta to Columbus remains around 5″ below average over the past 3 months. Much of the area north of Atlanta is now less than 2″ below average, with much of northeast and east-central Georgia actually in a surplus. Spots around Blairsville and Hiawassee are as much as 2-3″ above average.
The bad news: the next 7-10 days look quite dry. Our only real chance for rain will come Friday night with a front pushing through. Much like the past few months, those who live north of I-20 will have the best chance for totals over 1/4″.
We’ll be keeping an eye on the forecast over the next week or so to see if we can get some real rainfall into the state.
