Drought Worsens With Heat Wave
With high temperatures in the 90s for the past eight days (and counting), and no significant rainfall in about three weeks, it’s understandable that drought conditions in North Georgia are worsening. The Gwinnett Daily Post’s banner headline this morning said, “Official: Drought getting worse.”
And, indeed the latest drought monitor for Georgia shows an area of extreme drought in the northeast corner of the state enlarging to the west, including portions of Gwinnett county, and virtually all of the Lake Lanier drainage basin. As of Tuesday, 8.9% of Georgia was in extreme drought, compared to 2.3% last week. 61% of the state is classified as being in a moderate drought. However, as the comparison below shows, we’re still better off than we were at this time last year. On June 12, 2007, 47% of Georgia was in extreme drought and 96.1% was in at least a moderate drought.
The upper level high pressure system that brought the excessive heat and kept rainfall away has moved off the Georgia coast. This has allowed thundershowers to develop, which we’ve seen for the last few nights. Until last evening, they managed to avoid Gwinnett, however around midnight, .57 inches of rain fell at my house—the first significant rain I’ve recorded since May 23rd. The hit or miss nature of these storms is evident in the rainfall totals for yesterday. Atlanta received only .03 inches, Athens only .05 inches and Cartersville .08. However Gainesville recorded .54 inches, Charlie Brown airport .59, and Peachtree DeKalb appeared to have led the metro in rain with .74 inches of precipitation.
Nature responded appropriately, and the view from my window is much greener than it was at this time yesterday. However, the dry soil will quickly absorb all the water. Fortunately, more storms are predicted through the weekend. What we really need is some of the water that has inundated the rivers in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, which has caused hundred-year-old records to fall.
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June 12th, 2008 at 10:04 am
[...] Lawrenceville Weather Blog has a nice look at the current state of the drought. From their site: And, indeed the latest drought monitor for Georgia shows an area of extreme [...]
June 12th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
It has indeed been a hot June. Nice Blog!