Atlanta Water Shortage

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″

As seen in Ken Cook’s blog, July was the rainiest month we’ve had in nearly two years, with a total of 7.17″ at the Atlanta airport, which is 2.05″ above average.  It also cuts our rainfall deficit for the year to just five inches, compared to the 14 inch deficit we were facing at this point last year.

The bad news is that Lanier continues to drop.  It went from 1056.23′ on July 1 to 1055.15′ on August 1, or a drop of just over a foot. Last year on August 1 we were at 1064.14′, so we’re quite a bit behind that.

Last August is when the lake really began to drop, losing nearly 2.5 feet in August, and over three feet in both September and October.  The record low is 1050.79, set on December 26 last year.  If we see similar drops in the next few months, we’ll blow past that record.

This month should be very telling…