Drought-ravaged north Georgia could be in for major relief over the next 24-36 hours.
"It’s hard to bust a drought with one event but we have a potential to put a pretty big dent in it".
Matt Sena of the National Weather Service office in Peachtree City says already this morning, the remnants of tropical storm Fay have paid dividends. 2-3 inches of rain has been recorded at the upper end of the Chattahoochee River Basin--by Lake Lanier.
Sena says the 3-5 inches of rain that could fall across most of north Georgia by Tuesday night would be different than recent summertime patterns for the region.
"During the summer months we’ll see a 3-4 inch rainfall amount out of some of these thunderstorms but it will be a very isolated area so it doesn’t produce a lot of runoff into the mainstream rivers. This type of event gives us a potential to see that over a widespread area which would put a lot of water into our streams and rivers, and hopefully eventually into some of our reservoirs".
Most of north Georgia is under a flash flood watch through Tuesday night.
Fay's rains were heavy in Florida late last week into the weekend, and brought several inches of heavy rain to south Georgia into and through the past weekend as well.
"It’s hard to bust a drought with one event but we have a potential to put a pretty big dent in it".
Matt Sena of the National Weather Service office in Peachtree City says already this morning, the remnants of tropical storm Fay have paid dividends. 2-3 inches of rain has been recorded at the upper end of the Chattahoochee River Basin--by Lake Lanier.
Sena says the 3-5 inches of rain that could fall across most of north Georgia by Tuesday night would be different than recent summertime patterns for the region.
"During the summer months we’ll see a 3-4 inch rainfall amount out of some of these thunderstorms but it will be a very isolated area so it doesn’t produce a lot of runoff into the mainstream rivers. This type of event gives us a potential to see that over a widespread area which would put a lot of water into our streams and rivers, and hopefully eventually into some of our reservoirs".
Most of north Georgia is under a flash flood watch through Tuesday night.
Fay's rains were heavy in Florida late last week into the weekend, and brought several inches of heavy rain to south Georgia into and through the past weekend as well.
