SAVANNAH, Ga (WSAV) – Throughout the past couple of months, the region has been gifted with lots of beautiful sunny days and not much to speak of in terms of precipitation. This dry pattern has been excellent for outdoor plans and especially the variety of fall festivities that occur during this time of the year. However, with very little rainfall, many parts of Georgia and into the Lowcountry are settling into a drought.

This dry pattern has not only impacted the state of Georgia but across the southeast US many other locations are dealing with more extreme drought levels. In portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and along the Gulf Coast shoreline extreme to exceptional levels of drought are present due to the lack of rainfall.

In Georgia, the most extreme drought resides in the northwest corner of the state where extreme drought levels are recorded. Meanwhile, severe drought resides across Atlanta and even in the southwest portion of the state near the Florida, Georgia, and Alabama border. Closer to home in the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry our drought level is currently abnormally dry, especially in coastal counties heading northward through Charleston due to the lack of rain.

The reason for this lack of precipitation has been due to areas of high pressure that have continuously developed over the past couple of months. These areas of high pressure have acted as a dome of dry air shielding our region from developing systems inhibiting cloud and storm formation. As a result, our weather has been very pleasant with lots of sunshine while remaining dry.

The last time Savannah saw a rainfall measurement of 0.5 inches or more was way back on October 12th. Additionally, the last time Savannah recorded a rainfall measurement of 1 inch or more was back on August 30th when the remnants of Hurricane Idalia moved through.

So far for the year 2023, the region is over six inches below normal compared to where we should be rainfall-wise. This number is only expected to become more anomalously dry as we head into next week as high pressure once again builds into the southeast United States providing more dry air and giving us lots more sunshine.