Long-term drought persists across Georgia with no relief in sight

A long-term drought continues to persist across the state. Unfortunately, there is no rain in sight.

Current Drought Conditions

The latest from the US Drought Monitor places the entire state in at least abnormally dry conditions, with the vast majority of the state now considered in an Extreme Drought. As of April 7, 68.09% of the state is under an Extreme Drought, with 18.79% under the worst category of Exceptional Drought across South Georgia. 88.34% of the state is considered in at least a Severe Drought. The only areas currently not experiencing at least severe conditions are a bit south of the I-20 corridor.

We did see some beneficial rain across far North and Southwest Georgia during last weekend’s rain event. These lucky spots saw as much as 3″ of rainfall, but there were sharp cutoffs around those higher totals.

This rain, while nice, didn’t do a ton to offset our long-term deficits. Below you can see what the drought looked like both 3 months ago and 1 week ago. The rain allowed far North Georgia to remain steady, but the severe drought area expanded significantly across North-Central Georgia and the exceptional area expanded across South Georgia.

This is quickly becoming a long-term problem for the region. The last time we saw widespread severe drought conditions was in 2017, and all signs point towards further worsening happening. Looking back at the past 6 months, you can see widespread rainfall deficits of 9-10″ are occurring state-wide. We continue tacking onto these deficits each day that we see no rainfall, and by the end of next week we could see widespread double digit deficits state-wide.

Upcoming rain?

Unfortunately, the next 7-10+ days look extremely dry across the region. Continued low humidity will result in additional loss of soil moisture, and no rain is expected across most of the southeast. Below, you can see the “rain shield” that will create a big hole over our region in the next 7-10+ days. Only some very light rain is possible across the northern half of the state, and that won’t be coming until at least the middle of next week if at all.

As you begin spring planting season, keep in mind that soil moisture is currently very low. The latest from the CPC shows current anomalies in soil moisture. These are low across most of the country, but particularly low across the southeast. This will impact germination of any planted crops as well as health of young transplanted crops as well.

Current soil moisture anomaliesWe’ll be keeping an eye on the forecast for the next few days, and hopefully something more meaningful will develop in the 7-10 day window. In the meantime, stick with Now Georgia for the latest on the drought and associated fire danger conditions.