Latest On Central Alabama’s Drought Situation: 3/24/2017
Drought conditions improve slightly over the past week, with the latest information from the U.S. Drought Monitor showing that the only part of the area in extreme drought conditions are located in the southern parts of Jefferson County and just very small parts of Tuscaloosa, Walker, and Shelby counties. The rest of Central Alabama are mainly in moderate to severe drought conditions.
We had a cold front move across the area last Friday night and into Saturday that brought some light showers with it. Unfortunately, rain totals averaged around 1/4 to 1/2 inch for most areas, which was not helpful to reduce long term drought conditions.
Here are some rain totals for Central Alabama…
Birmingham
2017: total 12.44 in ….. avg 13.13 in ….. deficit 0.69 in
deficit/surplus since 1/1/2016: -14.10 in
Montgomery
2017: total 17.17 in ….. avg 14.19 in ….. surplus 2.98 in
deficit/surplus since 1/1/2016: -8.59 in
Anniston
2017: total 12.92 in ….. avg 13.20 in ….. deficit 0.28 in
deficit/surplus since 1/1/2016: -17.82 in
Tuscaloosa
2017: total 14.43 in ….. avg 13.00 in ….. surplus 0.50 in
deficit/surplus since 1/1/2016: -13.66 in
Calera
2017: total 14.54 in ….. avg 14.36 in ….. surplus 0.18 in
deficit/surplus since 1/1/2016: -17.11 in
Troy
2017: total 20.09 in ….. avg 13.12 in ….. surplus 6.97 in
deficit/surplus since 1/1/2016: -7.36 in
The good news is that the outlook for the next two weeks shows we will have a decent amount of rainfall across the area. As you can see by the graphic, rainfall totals will be in the 3-4 inch range over the next 14 days.