12/6/19

By: Bill Kinsland

(Sautee)- Good news for White County’s farmers and gardeners! The National Drought Mitigation Center released its weekly Drought Map Thursday and it shows White County is almost drought-free. Only the lower quarter remains in the “Abnormally Dry” status.
 
This drought began on September 10th and worsened rapidly, leading weather experts to call it a “Flash Drought”. The worst conditions were recorded on October 8th when the entire county was shown to be in severe or extreme drought conditions.
 
A sudden reversal in weather conditions in the last week of October caused conditions to improve steadily since then. As we approach year’s end, our river and lake levels, as well as our groundwater levels, have improved markedly over the last month. Our total annual rainfall will definitely end the year with a nice surplus.
 
As of Friday morning, our total county year-to-date rainfall stands at 73.18 inches….which is 12.27 inches (over a foot!) above the normal level of 60.91 inches. Altogether we have had 120 percent of our normal rainfall.