Seven more inches of rain needed
After nearly a week of consistent rain, it feels impossible that Gilmer County is still in the middle of a drought.
But it is.
“People can’t believe that we can’t burn,” Gilmer County Emergency Management (EM) Deputy Director Al Cash said.
Before the most recent round of rain, Gilmer was experiencing some of the worst drought in nearly 20 years.
A little rain doesn’t end a drought, he said.
“It goes well against the deficit that we had of 13 inches,” he said of the rain.
But it has to keep raining until all the missing water has returned.
“Now we’re probably around a 7-inch deficit,” Cash said.
Roughly 3.13 inches of rain have fallen on Gilmer in the last week, he said. This rain is in addition to roughly 3 more inches of rain in the last several weeks.
All this rain has reduced most of the southern half of the county from extreme drought to severe drought.
The U.S. Drought Monitor has five different categories of drought.
Most of the southern part of Gilmer is in the third-worst category of drought. Most of the northern part of the county is in the fourth-worst category.
Some areas in southern Georgia are far worse
Even with heavy rains, the county has been spared from flooding, which is often a possibility after drought.
“We have heard of the occasional tree down and power lines down, but it’s very scattered,” Cash said.
Although people may be disappointed to know fire risks remain high, there are good reasons not to burn leaves or brush.
“We’re still in a critical condition here,” Cash said. “It’s not safe to burn without employing all the safeguards that the Forestry Service recommends.”
The safeguards include always watching the fire, making a 25-foot fire break around your fire, a water source near the fire and limiting your burning to brush from the yard only.
Anyone planning to burn something needs to get a burn permit from the Georgia Forestry Service.
After last week’s rain, it’s likely that Georgia will go through another dry spell, Cash said.
“I don’t see any rain in the forecast through next weekend. And then after that, there’s no rain in sight in the near future,” Cash said. “It’s not enough rain to negate the problem or the conditions that we’ve gotten for the drought.”