A U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday morning shows that exceptional drought conditions, the most severe category, still cover part of the western Carolinas. Extreme conditions, the second most severe category, still spread across northeast Georgia, while the situation is less severe elsewhere in Georgia, eastern Tennessee and into the central Carolinas.
Most of the region is still considered at least abnormally dry.
Conditions improved slightly after rain across the region. But it hasn't been enough to refill reservoirs that quickly drained during an early season heat wave. A lack of rain in June renewed drought conditions that have spread across the Southeast for much of the past year.
The Drought Monitor report assessed conditions up through Tuesday morning.
(AccessNorthGa.com's Ken Stanford contributed to this report.)
On the Net:
U.S. Drought Monitor map: http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/7/211608