Drought Monitor 2016

The last three weeks haven’t brought much drought relief to the region. Here’s an update on where we stand.

We’ve seen an uptick in afternoon storm coverage recently, however this has yet to do much to give more than very temporary relief of our regional drought. As of the latest update, most of Habersham County is considered to be in an “extreme” drought. Keep in mind this is a blanket outlook and individual areas may be worse or better than depicted below.

The good news is that compared to last week’s update, there has been virtually no change so things certainly aren’t getting any worse.

This is still a short-term drought, as is evidenced by just a large area of abnormally dry only 3 months ago, and non-existent drought at the start of the year.

Even better news lies on the horizon with the global weather models showing an uptick in total rainfall over the coming 7-10 days that could help ease the drought back to just “severe” rather than “extreme”.

Here are some of the local rainfall deficits with the change from July 18th in parentheses.

Helen:-13.10″ ( +.15″)

Cornelia: -11.28″ (+.56″)

Elberton: -11.51″ (-0.64″)

Dahlonega: -11.04″  (-.78″)

Toccoa: -8.3″ (+2.47″)

Gainesville: -9.83″ (+.10″)

Clayton: -7.16″ (+2.72″)

Blairsville:-4.58″(+2.69″)

And here’s a few of the lake level deficits with the three week change in parentheses.

Blue Ridge: -4.56′ (-1.43′)

Lanier: -4.42′ (-33′)

Hartwell: -3.89′ (-.54′)

Chatuge:-2.41′ (-.75′)

Russell: -.47′ (+.12)

Burton: +.15′ (+.02′)

As mentioned above, an upper level low will likely bring widespread precip through much of the next 7 days, which will likely lead to some relief region-wide.