Atlanta FINALLY gets some good rain
There were 25 straight dry days in a row, which caused Lake Lanier to drop by over 1.5 feet, but the last few days have brought some very nice rain totals to the area. The 25 day stretch was the 21st longest dry period since 1878 — pretty impressive!
According to Ken Cook, here are some area totals from the storm:
- Athens…3.16″
- Atlanta….1.80″
- Cartersville…1.43″
- Columbus…3.03″
- Gainesville…1.64″
- Macon…1.44″
- Marietta…2.51″
- Peachtree-Dekalb…2.04″
- Peachreee City…1.96″
- Rome…1.85″
- Fulton Co. airport…1.94″
We’re still looking at a bit more rain today (mostly this morning), so the totals may creep a bit higher. After that, things may dry out again for a while. The accuweather 15-day forecast shows nothing for the next two weeks, so we’ll see what happens.
Tags: forecast, ken cook, lake lanier, rainfall
October 9th, 2008 at 7:47 am
Re-setting my DEADPOOL(tm) PREDICTOR….
March 16, 2012
BGAWK
October 9th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
My lawn is happy.
I’m curious, though, how much positive impact we’ll see in the lake level from this storm.
October 10th, 2008 at 9:51 am
I can’t believe it - Lanier up only two inches after receiving an inch and a half of rain over almost the entire basin. I’m very surprised. It went up a foot and a half the day we got rain from the tropical storm, and that was only about two inches of rain.
October 10th, 2008 at 10:27 am
It may take a little while.
October 10th, 2008 at 10:48 am
dreidson - We got closer to seven inches when Fay passed through. The first couple of inches largely fill up smaller ponds and replenish soil moisture, etc. Once all that is in good shape, we get more runoff into Lanier. If we got another two inches today we would see a much better gain than we did from this last couple of inches.
This rain didn’t gain us much but it did at least slow down the burn rate. Now if we can start levelling out very soon before the winter refill period we should be in better shape next year. Here’s hoping for a wet fall and winter.
October 10th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I guess there’s a lot of rain water collectors in peoples backyards in Atlanta to try to take advantage of all possible water?
October 11th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Anybody remember Russ Minshew? We was gettin’ mad rain back when he was forecastin’!
BGAWK
October 13th, 2008 at 6:56 am
ok, that’s funny
October 14th, 2008 at 7:43 am
I’m bad. I’ve been using my irrigation system (5 min per station) M-W-F for a long time now, at 3:30 am. It doesn’t green up the lawn too much but keeps my plants alive.
However…
I do collect water from the AC condensation pipe and a bedroom dehumidifier, and a bucket in the shower…and fill up my toilet and only flush as needed. I didn’t have to turn on the toilet water valve all summer. Lugging water around in a bucket is a pain but it offset some of my outdoor water usage.
Oh well, we do what we can.
Water rates are ridiculous now.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:19 am
We can’t (legally) run our irrigation system, so I don’t. I’d consider running it once every two weeks otherwise. But I can always replant the fescue.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:21 am
We’ll all be raising our own chickens soon enough. Silly worries such as maintaining a green, weed-free lawn will be a thing of the past.
BGAWK!
October 24th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Okay which will hit bottom first, Lanier or the Dow Jones Index?
BGAWK!
October 24th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
What a lonely person. Or IS this board a just a joke?
October 25th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Glad you flolk finally got some rain. I went camping up in the Smoky Mountains that are also in the same drought zone and it rained almost every day. I didn’t mind because it was so dry before the rain.
Prootwadl, have you considered another grass besides fescue? I have some of that under some oak trees that does well, but it doesn’t grow at all in the sun. I know a lot of people don’t like the grasses that turn brown in the winter but I do. The marsh also turns tan and I like it. But I’m not sure how long it would be green in Atlanta?
Zoysia is drought very tolerant. It can be agressive but I have bermuda grass that is also agressive and it doesn’t take over flower beds or anything like that.
I realize most people are set in their ways, but I’m going to plant some drought resistant grass in my dry bare areas. I don’t mind 4 months of tan grass.
October 26th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Drivin’ & Cryin’ Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
What a lonely person. Or IS this board a just a joke?
–
lighten up, Clarence
my comment about the blog becoming boring was deleted, so no, no it is not a joke (unlike your LIFE)
BGAWK!
October 26th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Johnc, we have a very shady partially-wooded yard including a huge flowering cherry tree in the front, so I don’t know how well bermuda grass would do. The fescue does seems to thrive in the shade, and after the few showers we’ve had over the past several days it’s getting green again, so I’m really not that worried.
Besides, it’s just grass.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:32 am
Prootwadl Says:
October 26th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
…Besides, it’s just grass.
–
I (heart) Pruittwaddle
BGAWK!
October 27th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I moved here from the Twin Cities. Lawns were not quite as high a priority up there due to long winters and a much drier climate. Some of your grass was going to die of cold in January and/or drought in August anyway.
October 29th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Prootwadl, yeah the fecuse would be a good choice for shade. I have some bermuda but was suggesting looking into the zoyisa for drought tolerant grass. The bermuda needs a lot of nitrogen so that might not be as useful.
I agree, it’s just grass. I watter one dead spot in the front yard like once a month during drought. But I’m tired of doing that so I planted some zoyisa seeds and hopefully that will do the trick.
I’m in Charleston and everyone has St Augestine which also goes dormant but doenst die. St. Augstine would die from cold in Atlanta.
Anyway, a few bare spots don’t bother me either.
The fecuse looks really nice and green under trees in the winter. Then the rest of the grass going dormant looks good too. It’s a little bit of a balancing act for me right now.
I was just wondering how zoyisa would do in Atlanta?
October 29th, 2008 at 8:01 am
I have a lawn of emerald zoysia here in Atlanta. It’s the perfect grass for this region, I think. It’s been so dry here over the past almost 20 years, that the ground under the grass is like concrete, but the grass looks and feels great. It needs very little chemical treatment. I put down weed and feed once a year and preemergent twice, although the commercial companies use much more than that. I didn’t watered it at all this past summer. It would look very dry and then a small amount of rain would green it right back up. I even like its tan/brown color in the winter, and I love not having to mow it. And of course, a hard freeze is no problem for it. It struggles in shady areas and I sometimes have a bare spot or two, but I think that’s a small price to pay.
The only problem I’ve had recently is brown patch, which is a fungus that is taking over lawns in Atlanta since the drought. There are also some grubs that have been eating zoysia lawns around here. Both can completely destroy a zoysia lawn in a very short period of time if not treated.
Linda