Climatologist Says Dry September Worsens Drought
Georgia State Climatologist David Stooksbury says the drought isn’t getting any better.
Tropical Storm Fay brought beneficial rain to Georgia in late August. But a very dry September has led to the return of low stream flows across the state and worsened drought conditions.
All streams in Georgia except those originating in the extreme southern counties are extremely low. Most streams in the state’s northern half are at or near record low flows for this time of the year.
Stooksbury also says that Lake Lanier is at a record low for this time of year, and indicates that when the new Georgia drought map comes out on Thursday, it will show conditions worsening compared to the previous report.
Unfortunately, the chances of a tropical storm helping the situation are diminishing by the day:
The probability for meaningful drought relief over the next couple of weeks is low. October is still in the tropical storm season. But the likelihood of tropical weather impacting Georgia diminishes rapidly as the month progresses.
You can also look at this comment for some insight into how dry September 2008 was.
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October 2nd, 2008 at 8:56 am
I agree that September 2008 was extremely dry. Here in Fayetteville, GA I recorded only 0.15 inches for the month! And that small amount was at the beginning of the month. There were some days when the counties to my South (Meriwether, etc) got some good rain. But it all seemed to fall apart as it approached Fayette, as usualy for anyone who needs rain right? So really, even if pockets of the Atlanta area (or Georgia for that matter) get tons of rain….if other areas do not, this drought to me is getting substantially worse. And who ON EARTH thought this drought could get any worse. The only reason at all I got any rain since July was TS Fay. Here is the 2-Week rain forecast:
http://wxmaps.org/pix/prec1.html
….it shows, literally, 0.00″ of rain forecast for Georgia! NONE…for the whole 2 weeks!! I was somewhat optimistic when I read Kirk Mellish’s blog that said this about the rain chances the next 60 days:
I will use this page to do periodic updates. I will cover insights, and long-range outlooks and misc. things I don’t have time on-air to talk about or which are too complex for radio.
SEPTEMBER 22ND
Tropical development or a Nor’Easter possible later this week with possible hit by weekend or so anywhere from SC Northward. The 60 DAY OUTLOOK for Georgia calls for temps to average near-normal with rainfall above-normal.
Well….we’d have to get like 8 inches, right, between mid/late OCT and the end of NOV for this to be right, sadly. Is this degree of drought unprecedented? I don’t know….Jon may know that. All I know is I do remember many, many rainy days and nights growing up in Georgia, and I just don’t see them anymore!