Atlanta Water Shortage is a wonderful web-site for those interested in this. They have a great graphic showing the lake level for the past couple of years:

That very, very steep decline from August to December of 2007 means that 2008 is going to be rough year for us here in Atlanta. They'll be lucky if they can keep generating power from the lake throughout this year, I doubt it myself. I bet we're going to hit dead pool at 1035 ft above sea level.

I'm a bit of a amateur weather buff, and have been looking at the 10 day weather models and Georgia to NC should receive more significant rainfall this week (3-5 inch range). While this will not end the drought now, it does indicate a significant change in the weather pattern. As I predicted many months ago these weather patterns have a way of balancing things out over time. Most importantly prediction made here of the Southeast US burning in flames and hoards of refugees moving north in Januaray never came true.

Nice. Two months rain and we're almost back, maybe to July 1, 07 levels.

And you call it over. A non event.

"these weather patterns have a way of balancing things out over time"

Yeah. Everything balances. And in the long run, we're all...

We in US agri need everything to be just right from now on.

We must have near record crops every year.

Whereas we only need one more drought year to bring us to our knees.

And Atlanta destroyed it's watershed to add insult to injury.

Maybe if I aspired to become an amateur weather buff, I would not be such a doomer...
but speculating about weather patterns based on 10 day weather models? that sounds pretty myopic

That's why I'm a climatologist on strategy,

a meteorologist tactically.

I believe that this means that Atlanta's golf courses and lawns will be safe for another year. Phew!

This year is starting out almost exactly like last year. If it continues, rainfall will be good till around April, then it will fall off a cliff.

Lets see what the rainfall looks like in early summer. If it doesn't continue to follow last years' pattern, and the SE gets some tropical moisture during hurricane season, then I'll be more optimistic.

I think that prediction was for next summer, and the summers to come. We'll see after La Nina goes away next year, but you must admit that the American Way of Life is creating water problems all over the continent, problems which impact tar sands production, ethanol production, the cooling of nuclear reactors, and of course hydroelectric power. Americans have to panic before they change.

Funny about that. Looking at the NCDC site Georgia has a total of 15" of rain this winter (Dec-Jan). it doesn't seem like much of a drought.