Drought conditions still plague parts of state

More than 8 million Georgians live in areas designated as drought.

Meteorologists are hopeful for an improved outlook soon, but some regions of Georgia continue with extreme drought warning.

Despite recent rains, abnormally dry conditions continue to persist across parts of Georgia, according to the latest drought monitor from the National Weather Service.

“We still have a couple of counties that have a little bit of the

extreme drought designation,” said Dylan Lusk, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.

According to the drought monitor, more than 8 million Georgia residents live in areas of drought. The eastern parts of DeKalb County and southern parts of Gwinnett County, along with most of Walton County and areas in Hall and Forsyth counties, are still experiencing extreme drought conditions, Lusk said.

Parts of northeast Georgia are experiencing severe drought while parts of northwest Georgia have dropped out of the drought category, he added.

The most recent drought reports cover the period through Oct. 29 and do not include the rain that swept through the area just before Halloween. Meteorologists said they expect to see improvements on next week’s drought outlook.

Drought conditions can persist even after rain because once drought conditions take hold, there are aspects that go beyond meteorology. Water in most lakes across the state has returned to normal, but rivers and creeks may still have relatively low water flowing through them, Lusk said.

“We were running really large deficits before the last bouts of rain. Even though we have had good soaking rains come through, there are areas where the condi

tions haven’t improved enough to say we are out of a drought,” Lusk said.

In the past 30 days, Atlanta has only run one-third of an inch above normal in terms of rainfall. That is not enough to overcome the 7-inch rainfall deficit that started six months ago. If rainfall stays average, things will return to normal, but it will take time. “We have had worse droughts, but any drought is not a good drought,” Lusk said.

The longest duration of drought in Georgia lasted 161 weeks beginning on April 11, 2006, and ending on May 5, 2009, based on data collected since 2000. The most intense period of drought occurred the week of Dec. 11, 2007, when exceptional drought affected 49.86% of Georgia land.