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Large parts of the Southeast are grappling with severe drought.

 in nearly six weeks. Some farmers are selling off cattle because there's not enough hay to feed them over the winter.



Denise Croker, a chief ranger with the Georgia Forestry Commission, 

, released Thursday, shows parts of Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi under "exceptional drought" conditions.


An even larger swath of the country — from eastern Texas through parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and up to Kentucky — is experiencing less serious, but still severe, drought that threatens crops and has led to water shortages.


Nearly 40 percent of the Southeast is under moderate to exceptional drought conditions, according to the most recent 

 by the Southeast Regional Climate Center.
Jordan McLeod, a regional climatologist at the Southeast Regional Climate Center, 

 that the Southeastern drought first developed in the spring and "really began to intensify during the summer."
The

 reports that the reason for the drought is essentially bad weather luck, because recent storms have skipped the driest areas:



The hardest-hit parts of the Southeast, mostly in Georgia and Alabama, are dealing with dryness comparable to the ongoing, 

. The new report classifies conditions in both parts of the country as long-term droughts, meaning they have been going on six months or more.



In the Southeast, the lack of water also has intensified a decades-long fight between Georgia and Florida over water rights. The main issue is that Florida thinks Georgia — and especially Atlanta — uses too much water from the Chattahoochee River, as Molly Samuel of member station WABE 

 by the Southeast Regional Climate Center said Lake Lanier, "a major reservoir for Atlanta's water supply, [was] about 8 feet below its summer pool level." It also recorded at least 1,000 wildfires in Alabama since late September.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has issued a 

 for every county in the state, and the northern half of the state is under a drought emergency, which allows local officials to restrict water use. As of Monday, all of Alabama was under a "no burn" order that bars all outdoor burning, according to the 

.
So far, the Georgia's Department of Natural Resources has not gone as far. In September, officials began what they called a "level 1 drought response," which consisted of a 

 in 53 counties.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal told reporters last week that he would impose water-use restrictions in some parts of the state "very soon," 

. Deal didn't say when the new restrictions would take effect.
In September, the 

U.S. Department of Agriculture designated

 the Georgia counties of Putnam, Baldwin, Greene, Hancock, Jasper, Jones and Morgan as disaster areas due to farmer and rancher losses from the drought. The designation means some farmers in those counties are eligible for "low interest emergency loans from USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA)."
The FSA says farmers in those seven counties have eight months, beginning from the Sept. 21 date of the disaster declaration, to apply for loans to help cover losses.  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Weather and Climate News

Environmental News

Rebecca Hersher

Author

Months of severe drought are causing water shortages and wildfires, particularly in Alabama and Georgia. The USDA has designated part of Georgia a disaster area for farmers.

Southeastern U.S. grappling with drought

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