Despite what you see falling from the sky, the ground beneath your feet still hasn’t received enough rain to quench the ongoing drought baking East and Middle Tennessee.
The U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday shows the Chattanooga region virtually unchanged by recent showers and thunderstorms through Tuesday, although the long-range forecast precipitates some hope, according to Kyle Snowdin, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Morristown, Tennessee.
“It can be hard to understand how much rain is actually needed to break the drought,” Snowdin said in a phone interview. “The really complicated part that comes from the recent rains is that a lot of those higher totals have been more isolated. Some of these higher totals have been 4 to 6 inches.”
Places such as downtown Knoxville and Soddy-Daisy got significant rainfall earlier this month, while a few miles away, little to nothing fell, Snowdin said. Chattanooga also saw a high temperature of 101 on July 13.