State Climatologist David Stooksbury says it's now classified as "exceptional" in all of northeast Georgia, including Hall County, except for a couple of counties - "exceptional" being the worst of all the categories.
"Drought conditions are expected to be 'exceptional' about once in 100 years," Stooksbury said, "(with) 'extreme' once in 50 years and 'severe' once in 20 years."
Stooksbury says, of particular interest to people in the Gainesville area, is the fact that the Chestatee River, one of two rivers that feed the lake, was at a record "low flow" for this late in August Thursday morning. In addition, the other, the Chattahoochee, was approaching a record for this time of the year Thursday.
In addition, Stooksbury said the Chattooga River in the northeast mountains is approaching an all-time record low flow. The stream gage data for the Chattooga goes back 67 years.
He says drought conditions across Georgia have worsened
dramatically since the beginning of August. Widespread triple-digit high temperatures and very little rain have caused soil moisture levels to plummet, stream flows to approach record lows and groundwater and lake levels to drop sharply.
The only exception to the state's dramatically worsening drought is in the interior southeast, where 30-day rainfall amounts have been 130-200 percent of normal.
Of Georgia's 159 counties, drought conditions are now
classified as exceptional in 70, extreme in 40, severe in 15, moderate in 13 and mild in six, with 11 counties classified as abnormally dry. Four counties as classified as not being in drought.
In early August, drought conditions were exceptional in 37 counties, extreme in 55, severe in 16, moderate in 21 and mild in 10, with eight abnormally dry. Twelve counties were classified as not being in drought.
In late June, no counties were in exceptional drought, but conditions were extreme in 104 and severe in 38. Then, conditions were moderate in just 15 and mild in only two, and no county was just abnormally dry or not in drought.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2007/8/86486