Recent Rain Doesn’t Impact Drought

July 24th, 2012

Despite the recent rain in metro Atlanta, much of the area is still in a drought. The summer thunderstorms that drenched the metro area the last couple of weeks provided a little relief. But state climatologist Bill Murphey says they won’t have a lasting effect.

“South metro is, the majority of it is in ‘extreme drought’ category,” Murphey says, “We did get some short-term relief for more urban metro and north metro. Cobb County and North Fulton picked up a good bit.”

Murphey says with temperatures in the mid-90s, evaporation rates are high. So, water is absorbed back into the atmosphere shortly after it hits the ground. But, he says areas south of Atlanta have it the worst.

“Southwest Georgia, between Macon and Atlanta basically,” he says, “And then bringing it on over toward Augusta. That area is still hard-hit. Augusta ranks as number one for the driest on record just if you look at the past year.”

To break the drought, Murphey says it will take sustained periods of rain. But there isn’t any major precipitation in the immediate forecast.