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Chattanooga: Soaking rain provides some relief from dry spell

By: Adam Crisp
(Contact)

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David Glenn

soaking rain that began Tuesday evening and sprinkled into Wednesday night dropped as much as 2 inches of rain in parts of the Tennessee Valley, meteorologists say.

That’s good news, since September and October usually are the area’s driest months, and because the Chattanooga area went into the showers with a 10-inch rain deficit this year, the National Weather Service in Morristown reported.

“It was a really impressive rain,” said David Glenn, WTVC News Channel 9 chief meteorologist. “In one day we surpassed the total rainfall for September.”

Last month was the 13th driest September in 130 years, the Weather Service reported. Measurable rain fell on only five days, and only two of those days had more than one-quarter of an inch, weather service records show. The heaviest rain fell on Sept. 14 when 0.44 inches was recorded.

The area has seen about 34 inches of rain since Jan. 1, records show, but about 42 inches of rain should have fallen by now in a normal year. So even after this week’s rain, the Chattanooga area still is behind by roughly 8 1/2 inches, according to weather service data.

“Some of my plants have gone dormant faster than they would have normally because they are trying to conserve their energy supply,” said Susan Babineau, a Soddy-Daisy Master Gardener. “But this rain was a big help, and it’s good because we aren’t going to have the 90-degree temperatures to make it evaporate right away.”

By Wednesday evening, most of the showers had moved east, said Gregg Cole, a meteorologist technician at the weather service. Today’s forecast held only a slight chance for rain in the morning, he said, and the next chance for showers is next Wednesday, but there was only a 20 percent chance for that.

“The good thing is that every day we are getting closer to November, which is typically one of the wetter months,” Mr. Glenn said. “We may see a few more showers in October, but nothing like what we had this week.”

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