Athens, Ga. – As Georgia starts its fourth year of drought and
summer nears, dry conditions are expected to worsen. After a very
wet March that brought temporary relief to topsoil moisture and
stream flows, dry conditions have returned to the state.
Since April 1, the entire state has received very little rain.
Rain deficits since April 1 include 4.39 inches at Athens, 3.18
at Atlanta, 3.14 at Augusta (Bush Field), 3.76 at Columbus, 0.87
at Macon and 4.20 at Savannah.
Because of the rain deficit, soils have quickly dried across the
state. The Georgia Agricultural Statistics Service reports that
soil moisture is short to very short in 82 percent of the state’s
soils.
Soil-moisture Losses High
In the past six weeks, moisture losses from soils include 5.56
inches at Alma, 7.02 at Brunswick, 7.25 at Savannah, 6.27 at
Midville, 5.03 at Plains, 6.64 at Tifton, 5.35 at Fort Valley,
4.30 at Griffin, 3.73 at Watkinsville, 4.60 at Dallas, 4.80 at
Gainesville, 3.91 at Blairsville and 4.06 at LaFayette.
The decrease in soil moisture is stressing pastures and row
crops. GASS reports that only one-third of the corn, cotton and
hay crops are in good to excellent conditions.
Many farmers are having to irrigate just to get the crops
started. Row-crop planting has slowed due to the dry
condition.
Stream Flows Extremely Low
Stream flows are extremely low, with daily low-flow records being
set on the St. Mary’s River in Charlton County, Little River in
Wilkes and Taliaferro Counties, Broad River in Elbert and Wilkes
Counties and Chattooga River in Rabun County.
Flow rates in other unregulated rivers and creeks across the
state are near or below the 10th percentile. At the 10th
percentile, in only 1 out of 10 years would stream flows be less
than the current flows.
The low stream flows in coastal Georgia are not good news for the
shrimping and crabbing industries. Low stream-flow levels in
southeast Georgia are associated with decreased white shrimp and
blue crab landings.
Wildfires Increasing
The dry conditions are also increasing wildfires, with several
new fires during the past few days. On May 16, the Georgia
Forestry Commission rated wildfire danger as high to extreme over
most of the state.
The outlook for breaking the drought is not promising. Even with
normal weather, the soils across the state will continue to lose
moisture. Normal summer weather also means that streams and
reservoir levels will continue to drop.
From May through October, soil moisture loss due to evaporation
and transpiration (plant water use) is generally greater than
rainfall.
Tropical Weather May Not
Help
Tropical weather is usually the only event that can cause
rainfall to be greater than soil moisture loss during Georgia’s
summers. With the extremely dry conditions of the state’s
subsoils, even a tropical storm will probably not break the
drought.
With early indications that the summer will be hotter than
normal, soil-moisture loss due to evaporation and transpiration
may be greater than normal. This increase in soil-moisture loss
will tend to increase the severity of the drought.
Daily updated drought information from the University of Georgia
is available at www.georgiadrought.org.
Daily updated weather information is available from UGA
Engineering’s Georgia Environmental Monitoring Network at
www.griffin.peachnet.edu/bae/.
