Chattanooga: Despite recent rains, drought still “severe”

This week’s rains helped make July the wettest month in Chattanooga since March, the National Weather Service said today.

But after three years of below-average rainfall, most of the Tennessee Valley still remains in a severe drought, according to National Drought Mitigation Center.

Last month, Chattanooga recorded 4.4 inches of rain at Lovell Field, slightly below the July average of 4.73 inches. In most of the rest of East Tennessee, however, rainfall was above average for the month.

National Weather Service forecaster David Gaffin said rainfall is expected to be near normal again in August, but Chattanooga rainfall is still 6.74 inches below normal so far this year.

Last year was the driest year across the Tennessee Valley in the 118 years such records have been kept, TVA spokesman Gil Francis said.

Through the first seven months of 2008, rainfall across the entire Tennessee Valley is only 78 percent of normal and runoff into TVA-controlled lakes and rivers has been only 63 percent of normal. As a result, Mr. Francis said hydroelectric power generation by TVA this year is 41 percent below normal and TVA’s upstream storage reservoirs in East Tennessee, Northeast Georgia and Western North Carolina are averaging 10 feet below normal summertime levels.

See tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press for more coverage