The D Word?

Rain gauges all across Central Alabama are gathering dust right now. It’s likely that a spider has dropped taken residence in your rain collector. Each week, I look at the Birmingham rainfall total, and this week, the only thing that moved was the deficit total.

When that happens for too long, we start to think the dreaded D word. Are we heading back into drought conditions across Central Alabama?

Abnormally dry conditions have crept back into Southeast Alabama and into the Northwest part of the state according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The situation is nothing like 2007 of course, and there are rainfall prospects on the horizon. But it does seem that recent systems have not lived up to their potential. No part of Alabama is in a drought category at this time. In fact, when looking at long term drought indicators, the state is in great shape. The short term indicators are neutral now across much of the state, except for the Northwest Part, up around Lawrence and Limestone Counties.

One week lawn and crop moisture needs are one to two inches across nearly all of the state now, including the Birmingham area. This means that emerging lawns and new gardens probably need a little help in the watering department now, something that we have not had to think about much lately.

The good news is that the current runs of the GFS have been indicating that much of the state can expect 3 to 4 inches of rain over the next two weeks, with 4-6 inches across parts of Southeast Alabama. That will certainly help. The Climate Prediction Center’s outlook for May calls for an equal chance of May precipitation being above or below normal across Alabama. We would take normal.

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