In Tennessee, the drought is quenched. For now.
Parts of Georgia, meanwhile, are the driest spots in the country.
Even though office, shop and break room conversations in recent days have included tales of flooded basements, leaky roofs, tipping trees and overflowing gutters, recent rains have been good news for most people in the Chattanooga region.
“The only area of extreme drought anywhere in the country is North Georgia right now. It’s the driest part of the United States,” WRCB Channel 3 chief meteorologist Paul Barys said Thursday. About half the Chattanooga region is now free of drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor update.
“We just got more rain north and west,” Barys said. “So Chattanooga finally is not in the drought area. But Dalton, [and the] southern half of Whitfield [County] is still in moderate drought all the way to Murphy [N.C.]”