Despite recent rains a long term drought continues across the region.
During the month of May Cornelia received 7.68″ of rainfall. That’s a whopping 3.26″ above average making it the largest positive change since December of 2015. This has moved our 3-month deficit to 2.89″ above average, the first positive change since December of 2015 as well. Our 6-month average remains just below normal and our 12-month deficit has increased significantly, though it remains enough to justify keeping a small portion of the region under long-term drought conditions.
The map to the right highlights the latest from the Drought Monitor. You can see much of the state of Georgia remains under a drought, with most of Habersham County now considered only in a D1, or moderate, drought. All counties north and south of Habersham are no longer in a drought. The pesky D2 drought area (the orange blob) continues over parts of White and Lumpkin Counties, but this area has been shrinking considerably over the past 2 weeks. In the image below and left you can find last week’s map, and the week before is bottom right. Even though we’ve seen plenty of rain the past two months, the rolling 12-month deficit is enough to justify this. This is still considered a long-term drought, and I expect the remaining area over NE GA to shrink even more (or perhaps disappear) over the coming months.
Extended weather models continue to show above average precipitation across the southeast throughout the month of June, and the coming week or two certainly show that coming to fruition with our first major weather maker already bringing a heavy rain threat by Sunday.
12 month rainfall deficits have been slashed significantly over the past month thanks to the well-above-average rainfall. They now range anywhere from 16″ in Cornelia to 9″ in Gainesville. Compared to the 26″ deficit Cornelia was in at the beginning of the year you can see just how much improvement we have seen.
Here are some of the local 12 month rainfall deficits as of 2/28/17 (with TWO month change in parentheses):
Cornelia: -16.09″ (+8.65″)
Clayton: -15.20″ (+9.16″)
Toccoa: -14.20″(+8.36″)
Dahlonega: -13.02″ (+10.41″)
Elberton: -12.28″ (+8.55″)
Gainesville: -8.78″ (+10.5″)
Also of note is that the 3 month deficits are positive across the entire region, also a first since 2015. Here are the 3 month rainfall deficits(as of 5/31/17) for the same stations:
Gainesville: +5.48″
Toccoa:+4.75″
Dahlonega: +4.5″
Clayton: +3.99″
Elberton: +2.9″
Cornelia: +2.89″
And here are a few of the current lake level deficits (as of 6/1/17):
Lanier: -6.69′
Hartwell: -6.37′
Russell: -.29′
Burton: +.14′
Chatuge: +1.14′
Stay with Now Habersham for the latest on the drought and other weather news and information.
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Original article: Drought Monitor 2017.