It Is Abnormally Dry, But We’re Not in a Drought Yet, Experts Say

It might seem like it, but Northeast Georgia is not in a drought quite yet.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Franklin and Hart counties are in the Moderately Dry range, which is one step below the first level of drought.

With no rain for the past couple of weeks, we are now about seven inches below normal rainfall for the month.

Lauren Carroll is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg.

Carroll says a large high pressure system is keep the much-needed rainfall at bay.

“Basically, it’s a really, really strong high-pressure system, unusually strong for this time of year and it’s camped out over the eastern United States,” she explained. “So, it’s pretty dry and there’s not a lot of moisture. We’re just not getting any systems; any low-pressure sytems, any frontal systems that would bring us rain. The high-pressure system is keeping those well off to our north.”

However, she said there is a kind of silver lining in our absent dark cloud.

“The relatively good news is that the high-pressure system is keeping all those tropical systems curving off to the north and not hitting the United States,” Carroll said. “We need some rainfall, but I don’t know of many people who want a hurricane. So, there’s good news and bad associated with it too.”

Meantime, Hartwell Lake remains at normal levels for this time of year despite the lack of rainfall.

As of Monday, the lake stood at 656.91 ft above mean sea level.

That’s about 4.5 feet below full pool, but not at Drought Trigger Level 1, which is another foot lower.

Corps spokesman Billy Birdwell says, the Corps plans no action at this time to lower the level further.

“Whenever we’re in normal operations, for Lake Hartwell that’s between 656msl and 660msl, you don’t see a lot of difference. Are we going to pull it down any further? No. Guide curve is,, even in the winter at the lowest, is 656,” Birdwell said. “We don’t do that unless we’re trying to keep both reservoirs (Lake Hartwell and Lake Thurmond) in balance. And then that’s because they’re both going down below guide curve.”

And Carroll said we can expect it to remain drier than normal for at least the next week as that high pressure system just sits over the Southeast.