Despite rain, drought continues to worsen across Georgia

Despite rainfall over the past week we haven’t seen any significant improvement in the drought over Georgia with even more of the state now under a D4 or exceptional drought.

Current Conditions

The latest from the US Drought Monitor has expanded the D4, or exceptional, drought to cover more of south and southeast Georgia. In addition, a small area of this highest category has now been introduced over Northeast Georgia covering parts of Madison, Franklin, Hart and Elbert Counties. This marks the first exceptional drought in  North Georgia since 2016.

As of this week there are no areas of the state in less than a D2, severe, drought and a staggering 80.72% are now in D3 or higher. The highest category D4 has increased to 33.4%, just 0.1% behind the highest percentage reached during the fall 2016 drought.

We did see some beneficial rains over the past week, but unfortunately they didn’t even come close to breaking even for the month anywhere in the state. Generally South Georgia averages between 3-3.75″ of rain during the month of April, and the Northern 2/3 of the state average anywhere from 4″ across Central Georgia to over 5″ in parts of the mountains. Northwest Georgia saw some locations receive as much as 3-3.5″, but the majority of the state saw 2″ or less over the past 7 days despite the storms.

This means that for the past 30 days we remain below normal. You can see below that only some very isolated locations in Northwest Georgia and a couple random spots over South Georgia saw anywhere near average precipitation for April. In fact, the vast majority of the state saw 50% or less of normal precipitation during the month. So yes, the rain was nice, but it wasn’t nearly enough to improve the drought.

As a result, rainfall deficits continue to climb with Athens and Savannah both now over 1ft below average in the past 6 months. Most of the state is over double digits and as we head into a historically wet time of year any further improvement will be hard to come by.

What’s coming?

There is some good news in the fact that we will remain in a wetter pattern than we’ve been in for at least the next couple of weeks. In fact, the latest blend of models from the NWS shows potential for much of South Georgia to receive 2-3″ of rain over the next 10 days – primarily from the low pressure system this weekend.

Average rainfall for May actually goes up slightly, but is still similar to April. The vast majority of us would need 2ft of rain over the next 3 months to end the drought, a feat that seems highly, highly unlikely and would probably cause more problems than it solves.

With flowers and trees in full bloom they will be pulling more moisture from the ground over the coming months, and fire danger will likely remain high to very high during dry spells. Drought-hardened ground has a much harder time absorbing and retaining water, which means it will take time to see any real improvement.

Stay with Now Georgia for the latest on the drought.