Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 10 december 2016

Drought, the South’s unwelcome guest, stays despite rains

JEFF MARTIN state climatologist. “My
Associated Press rule of thumb is that if you
ATLANTA (AP) — Recent have over an inch of rain
showers and storms have a week, you’ll have some
slightly eased the South’s help against the drought.”
severe drought, but ex- But too much, too fast
perts say it wasn’t enough won’t help much in the
to make up for months of South, where clay soils
dry conditions before the need time to absorb pre-
rain finally fell. cipitation.
Nearly the entire region re- With some of the recent
mains abnormally dry, and thunderstorms, “quite a bit
much more rain is needed of it was heavy so there
before the drought’s de- was a tremendous amount
mise can be declared, said of runoff,” Christie said. “It
Mark Svoboda, who di- just came too fast to soak
rects the National Drought in.”
Mitigation Center. The flow of streams also
The center’s weekly U.S. can help show what’s hap-
Drought Monitor, released pening with the drought.
Thursday, describes some Unfortunately, “I’m seeing
improvement due to re- many of the streams now
cent rains, but its map fall back below average,”
shows the South stubbornly Debris lies outside what’s left of Rosalie Church of God, on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016, in Rosalie, Ala. A Christie said.
covered in oranges, reds tornado ripped through the town destroying the church and killing three people on Wednesday, Lakes also remain low.
and browns — bad news Nov. 30. Lake Lanier, a main source
for a region becoming ac- Associated Press of drinking water for metro
customed to wildfires. Atlanta, is nearly 9 feet be-
“It takes a long time to go ceptional drought” — the linas. Orange, for “severe” The third-largest — which low its normal full capacity
into a drought and it takes very worst conditions — drought, stretches from started in Great Smoky for this time of year, Mur-
a long time to get out of still covers large swaths of Louisiana eastward to the Mountains National Park phey said.
it, and this one has been Georgia and Alabama. Carolinas. and killed 14 people in the Conditions generally im-
a doozy,” Georgia State That’s surrounded by red, Any rain is welcome, help- Gatlinburg, proved in areas that saw
Climatologist Bill Murphey indicating “extreme” ing firefighters control more Tennessee area — is more at least 3 inches of rain in
said. drought, in parts of Tennes- of the wildfires burning in a than 80 percent con- the past couple weeks, in-
A large brown area of “ex- see and the western Caro- region that has lost much tained, authorities said. cluding eastern Arkansas,
of its customary humidity. Abnormally dry condi- Louisiana and Mississippi,
The South’s largest wildfire, tions began showing up in the report shows.
which began in the Cohut- March in parts of the South, Now, the weather pattern
ta Wilderness area of north and intensified through the is showing some positive
Georgia and charred spring, summer and fall. signs and moisture from the
nearly 28,000 acres, is now Large parts of the region Gulf of Mexico could soon
100 percent contained, got only half of their usual produce more rains across
forest service officials said rainfall during the past six the South, forecasts are
Thursday. The second-larg- months. showing.
est blaze, which also be- “Another 10 inches is “The good news is that the
gan in the north Georgia what we really need in Gulf is opening up and has
mountains, is 95 percent the next few weeks,” said been opening up,” Mur-
contained. John Christie, Alabama’s phey said.q