By Clint Thompson
Regions across the Southeast have received much-needed rainfall in recent days. But will it be enough to alleviate some of the drought conditions being felt in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and other Southeastern states?
Growers will know more when the next U.S. Drought Monitor is released on Thursday.
Pam Knox, University of Georgia Extension Agricultural Climatologist, believes the drought-like conditions that were experienced in November and part of December could have a lingering impact on next year’s growing season, especially if dry conditions resume.
“We’re in the winter recharge period now. We really count on having rain in the winter to recharge our soil moisture and recharge our upper aquifer, so we have that water going into the next growing season. That’s certainly a concern for next year,” Knox said. “Clearly, it’s been quite dry.”
Current Dry Conditions
According to the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor, the majority of Georgia is abnormally dry, except for a small portion in the southeastern part of the state a long the Atlantic coast. A few counties in northern Florida are abnormally dry. Sporadic areas throughout Alabama are abnormally dry, including parts of Choctaw County, Sumter County, Marengo County and Clarke County that are moderately dry.
Conditions worsen in nearby states.
“If you look at North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, it’s really bad. Unfortunately, in the short term, there’s really not much room for improvement. I think they’re going to get skipped by a lot of the storms that we see in the next couple of weeks,” Knox said. “The only area that’s not in the abnormally dry conditions is that band along the coast in Georgia and down into Florida. They got hit by a bunch of storms that the rest of the region missed out on. They’ve still got a lot of soil moisture, at least relatively good soil moisture.
“Although down there it’s so sandy, they can get dry really fast. I’ve been amazed at how quickly the abnormally dry conditions have expanded. But we’ve been really warm, not so much in October, but November was warm.”