Mobile, AL - Driest March In 163 Years - SE Drought Continues

[hatrack]

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"Many cities in the Southeast experienced record and near-record dry conditions - less than 20 percent of the normal rainfall in many parts - from October through March. The federal Drought Monitor map placed much of the Southeast, including most of Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, in the "abnormally dry" category, the first of the five drought alert levels.

Atlanta; Montgomery, Ala.; New Orleans; Charleston, S.C.; Tallahassee, Fla.; Columbus, Athens and Savannah, all reported one of the driest months of March on record.

Mobile, Ala., had its driest March in 163 years, with rainfall totaling 0.42 of an inch - 6 percent of the normal amount for the month. In northeast Florida, Apalachicola posted its driest March ever, with 0.06 of an inch - about 1 percent of normal. "These are really pretty startling numbers," said Victor Murphy with the National Weather Service's Southeastern Regional Headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.

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The situation can turn around quickly. Record wetness across the region last May, June and July helped undo much of the damage done by a four-year drought that ended in 2002. The weather service's extended forecast for April, May and June calls for more dry conditions along the Gulf Coast and near-normal rainfall expected across the rest of the Southeast."

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http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/nation/8337344.htm