Record Dry Streaks Leave Parts of the South Rainless Since September

You can find the number of days since it rained at a particular location at the following link:

http://www.dayssinceitrained.com/

https://www.wunderground.com/news/record-dry-streaks-southeast-drought-fall-2016

Jon Erdman
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been an incurable weather geek since a tornado narrowly missed his childhood home in Wisconsin at age 7.
Published: November 6, 2016

Parts of the Deep South haven't seen measurable rain since September, setting new all-time record dry streaks and quickly worsening the Southeast's drought this fall.

Chief among these streaks is Alabama's most populous city.

No measurable rain (at least .01 inches) has been tallied at Birmingham's Shuttlesworth International Airport since Sept. 18, over a month and a half's time, a record-long dry streak for the city dating to 1930.

Nine minutes of sprinkles Friday morning, and another bout of sprinkles on Oct. 16 has been the entirety of Birmingham's rainfall so far this fall.

They're not alone. Anniston, Alabama, Meridian, Mississippi, and Rome, Georgia, each have 40-day dry streaks through Saturday, setting records in Anniston and Rome.

The Weather Channel meteorologist Kathryn Prociv noted even rainfall totals in the Desert Southwest since Oct. 1 were topping those in the "Desert Southeast."

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Going over a month without rain, coupled with record-smashing heat, quickly plunged a large part of the Southeast into a worsening drought, reaching exceptional levels in parts of Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia.

Reservoir levels have plunged, triggering major water restrictions. Friday, a stage 4 extreme drought emergency was declared in the city of Birmingham.

According to The Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel, over 1,200 fires have burned in Alabama since Oct. 1.

Incredibly, Hurricanes Hermine and then Matthew both soaked parts of North Florida, eastern Georgia and the Carolinas, but both delivered little or no rain to Alabama, the western Florida Panhandle and the Tennessee Valley.

Strangely, the rain shut off after that for the rest of October in most of the hurricane-soaked areas.

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The long-range outlook for the rest of November from The Weather Company, an IBM Business, doesn't paint a rosy picture for drought relief either. Despite temperatures finally trending at least a bit off the recent record highs, it may be a while before a good soaking rain quenches the Southeast drought's thirst.