Recent rainfall has helped ease overall drought conditions in Georgia once again this week, but Hall County continues to struggle under an extreme drought designation.
The U.S. Drought Monitor map released on Oct. 31, 2019 showed extreme drought conditions covering most of Hall County with only a small area across the southeast border of the county considered severely dry. Extreme drought also continues to impact a large central swath of Forsyth County, while small portions of Banks, Dawson, Gwinnett, Habersham, Lumpkin and White counties have the same designation. Most of the remainder of North Georgia is under a severe drought designation.
Several counties across south central Georgia are now drought free, according to the map, but that represents only 3.89-percent of the state. The remainder of Georgia continues to be impacted by some level of drought.
This week's U.S. Drought Monitor map does not take into account the rain that fell Thursday.
Rainy weather did help the level of Lake Lanier begin to recover. Since last week, the water level has risen almost three-fourths of a foot.
