David Glenn

Being ahead of the yearly rainfall pace may be an unfamiliar place for Chattanoogans, but six days into 2009, that’s exactly where they find themselves.

Dark, wet clouds dumped about 3 inches of rain on Chattanooga Tuesday, shattering a previous record of 2 inches set back in 1934. By early morning, the region already had beaten the normal year-to-date rainfall figure, according to the National Weather Service.

On the downside, it also prompted flood warnings across North Georgia and Southeast Tennessee and caused Hamilton County Schools officials to delay the start of classes today by an hour. Bradley County and Cleveland City schools won’t have classes at all. Hamilton County students will be released at their normal dismissal times, officials said.

After a couple of years of serious drought, the soggy finish of 2008 and start to 2009 is taking a major bite out of the drought, leading one meteorologist to sound the death knell of the problem in Northwest Georgia.

Staff Photo by John Rawlston Traffic moves through standing water on Davidson Road in East Brainerd on Tuesday afternoon during a day of heavy rain in the area. Chattanooga, like many parts of the Southeast, has experienced three years of drought conditions.

“This rain is something we haven’t dealt with in a while,” said David Glenn, chief meteorologist for WTVC-TV NewsChannel 9.

Hamilton and most other counties in Southeast Tennessee and Northeast Georgia still are under drought status but conditions are greatly improved, according to the latest drought monitor data released by the National Drought Mitigation Center on Dec. 31.

Hamilton and about 30 other Tennessee counties now are categorized as being in a “moderate drought,” the second lowest of the monitor’s five classifications. A narrow strip of the state including Marion and Grundy counties is listed on the monitor as only “abnormally dry,” the lowest category, while all counties west of Marion are clear of drought status.

Georgia’s northeast corner remains in extreme drought, according to the monitor, but the state’s northwest section is categorized in the map’s lowest of two levels.

Brian Lynn, meteorologist at the weather service office in Peachtree City, Ga., said the drought’s final demise in the tri-state region should come in two weeks when an updated drought monitor map is released.

“Probably for all intents, the drought is over for Northwest Georgia,” he said.

And it’s over like gangbusters. Around 3 p.m. Tuesday, parts of Dade and Walker counties in Georgia and DeKalb County, Ala., were placed under a brief tornado warning, while much of North Alabama was under a flash flood warning. There were only a few reports of storm damage and a few funnel cloud sightings in DeKalb County, according to reports.

“The areas that flooded were the low-lying areas that usually flood with this sort of downpour,” Mr. Glenn said, “but we just have to reacquaint ourselves with getting around in this sort of weather.”

Since Dec. 1, Chattanooga has received 13 inches of rain, twice the average rainfall for the period and more than three times the total for the timeframe in 2007, according to the weather service. The amount of rain that has fallen in December and early January is about the same amount that fell in November, October, September, June and May combined, records show.

To put the rainfall in context, Seattle, Wash., has only had 5.54 inches of rain in the same 37-day period.

Rains also have been heavy in Northwest Georgia since Dec. 1, with Chatsworth receiving more than 8 inches, LaFayette seeing more than 11 and Rome getting 91/2 inches.

Chattanooga police closed parts of Brainerd and East Brainerd roads because of high water, said Lt. Kim Noorbergen, police spokeswoman. Water was over the curb on East Brainerd near the Bi-Li grocery store, motorists reported.

Barricades and detours in the area caused traffic to back up for up to two hours, said Jenny Bradshaw, who lives on Rosebrook Drive.

“It took me almost an hour to go about two miles,” Ms. Bradshaw said. “East Brainerd Road was really unbelievable.”

Anna Evans had it even worse with a nearly two-hour commute from Gunbarrel Road to her home in the East Brainerd Road area.

“I live 10 minutes from work usually,” Ms. Evans said. “When I got to East Brainerd Road and saw all the water it was just amazing.”

Mr. Glenn predicted another inch of rain overnight Tuesday. Temperatures will dip into the 40s today after the rain dries out, he said, but winds will make it feel very cool. The next chance for rain is Saturday, he said.

And, as can be expected during heavy rains, evening commuters managed to be involved in a half dozen or so interstate crashes. Officers worked two Interstate 75 crashes: one near northbound mile marker 9 in Hamilton County and another in McMinn County near southbound mile marker 40. Bradley County authorities said they worked an evening crash on State Route 2.

Sequatchie County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Randall Lockhart said the heavy rain might have caused a minor traffic accident or two, but there were no reports of major flooding or road closures.

“But if it keeps on like this, there will,” Chief Deputy Lockhart said.

Catoosa County closed 11 roads and Dade County shuttered a dozen because of flooding, officials said.

Chattanooga police and public works officials remained busy, though Richard Beeland, the mayor’s spokesman, said he knew of no roads that were closed due to standing water. Sheriff’s dispatchers in Walker County, Ga., and Rhea County, Tenn., said they had no reports of closed roads as of Tuesday evening.

In Dalton, Ga., Rosewood Garden Center owner David Potts is thankful for every drop.

“Even if it doesn’t rain from now until April 1, there would still be moisture in the soil,” he said.

Mr. Potts was forced to reduce his staff by about 30 percent when the drought and water restrictions dried up the nursery’s customer traffic.

“I think people in our area are getting tired of hearing the word ‘drought,’” he said.

Staff writer Ben Benton contributed to this story.