The SE Drought

[Justin E. Reed]

It has been a long, hot, make that outrageously hot summer in the SE, and as we enter fall, we enter the dry season for much of the South. This past summer, records fell left, right, and sideways, rain refused to fall as clouds on many days were a no show. Nashville alone shattered records dating back to the very beginnings of record keeping, back in the late 1800's. Hottest August and September ever for the Mid State, over 3 weeks straight over 95, 6 days over 100, and a new record for August, 106. At Smyrna, TN was over 95 for 5 weeks, with 3 1/2 weeks over 100, and over half a dozen days over 105! Now, unchecked growth and sprawl is catching up, and it is beyond a critical situation anymore, its looking up to the heavens and simply asking, WHY?! The City of Atlanta officially has 3 months of water left and Lake Allatoona is about to disappear and Lake Lanier may not be far behind. Cities are imposing jail time, on top of fines up and over $500, now its either drink and shower, or water your oversized suburban home lawn, hmm, it seems Atlantans finally have no choice. La Nina is setting in, which is a mixed blessing. The Mid South(KY, TN, NC and Northern GA, AL & MS can see a wet winter, while FL & SC, as well as Southern AL, MS, & GA can get dry and start to burn, yet again. Simply put, if we don't get some appreciable rainfall totals this late fall and winter, next summer could actually do parts of the South in, and the most people at risk live in the 20 counties called Metro Atlanta.

WXIA 11 ALIVE NBC Atlanta
http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=104566

 

[Josh Durkee]

and yet, you look all around Atlanta and the city fountains are still going strong. The new Stone Mtn. snow hill is still a go. And all the football and baseball fields look healthy as a horse.

edit: apparently they recently canceled the snow hill.

 

[MatthewCarman]

I was under the understanding that even though we are in a El-Nino the south could still have a wet Winter and that it all depended on where the jet stream set up and how other factors played out? Interesting how many are thinking the se will be dry just because we are in a El-Nino. Correct me if I am wrong and we still have around 2 months before Winter actually starts.

Texas and Oklahoma was in a 1-3 year drought and a unexpected rainy season that caused severe flooding in June and July killed the drought in 2 months so anything is possible. Do not give up hope yet.

 

[Justin E. Reed]

On average, a La Nina pattern means for Florida a warm, drier than normal winter. Now anomolies can occur and the whole SE can have a wet winter, HOWEVER, La Nina trends leave Florida and the extreme Deep South drier than normal. La Nina patterns for the Mid South(KY, TN, NC) usually means much wetter than average winter, usually days of heavy rain causing floods, and a few heavy snow events(JAN 2002 for Mid-TN, flurries/dusting forecasted, wound up with 6-10 inches). Lets hope the whole South has a soaking winter, except for Jacksonville Metro, 15-30 inches, depending upon location, in 3 weeks is rediculous, the ground is still soaked and very unstable for heavy vehicles. Oh, and La Nina can mean more severe storms than usual for the South during the winter, much of the South, outside of S. AL and S. GA were spared a stormy spring. We'll see, but past trends have held up, this drought is redonkulous!

 

[Terry Tyler]

the drought here in MS is improving...especially in western portions of the state where drought conditions arent existant...

 

[MatthewCarman]

Yes and recently the SE did get some good rain. I think some areas got up to a inch of rain in some areas when it rained last week or early this week. First the coastal areas had some rain and then a line of storms/rain moved through mabey a week later. (Last week I think) So things are improving for some areas even if it is just briefly.

 

[Justin E. Reed]

A fair chance of rain is moving into the forecast this week for the Mid and Upper South, very welcome news to say the least. This front will bring some severe storms with it, but we'll take it as long as we get some dang rain!

 

[Justin E. Reed]

Sonny Purdue, is he for real?!

Ok, Sonny Purdue, the governor of the State of Georgia, is calling for federal disaster decleration. Now, this makes major sense, but part of his reason makes him look like a a$$. He's says that the Army Corps of Engineers is mostly to blame for the extent of water loss in Lake Allatoona and Lake Sidney Lanier, now that is the biggest crock of shat to come outta there since, wel I don't know when. He is suing the Corps because they release too much water for the needs of Alabama and Florida, but oh so much needs to be realized by him before he starts pointing fingers. FIRSTLY, the biggest finger is to be pointed at the State of Georgia, come on, you can't plan on having an adequate water supply by two lakes, you need an extensive network of lakes to depend on. Secondly, Atlanta Metro, come on, need I say more than sprawl and the hope of a house with a large lawn that they feel must be watered, twice a darn day! Lastly, blame yourself for not realizing the situation before it got to this point, you should've acted much before this point. You just can't supply 6.3 million people with water to drink, cook with, shower, and water your lawn on 2 lakes, granted Lanier is quite large, but still, HELLO?! The drought is not the end of the world, its happened before, just not in many many decades, and the South was nowhere near this large. Conservation, planning, and brains are all needed to make sure this situation doesn't happen again. So Sonny, stop balming everyone, blame yourself, federal laws were enacted when Lake Lanier was made to allow water supply for Alabama and Florida, your not the only ones on the Chattahooche/Apalachicola River System that uses it's water.