ALBANY, GA -
For many people in our area, this is the only body of water they see. The Flint River looks much higher than it did a few months ago, when it was more like a trickle. And there's a reason for that.
It's "because there was some rain north, in the Atlanta area," explains Doug Wilson, the Executive Director of the Georgia Water Planning and Policy Center.
If you look a little closer at the water situation in our area, you get a different picture. The Muckalee Creek in Lee County is running low. And it's not the only one.
"(The) Chickasawhatchee, Ichaway/Nochaway, Spring Creek; those tributaries remain at or near record lows for these dates," said Wilson.
A lack of widespread rain continues a trend of the last year.
In January 2012, Albany picked up about an inch and a half of rain, compared to its normal of nearly 5 inches. For 2011, the official rainfall total reported by the National Weather Service was less than 27 inches. That's barely HALF the average of about 53 inches.
With all that in mind, it really shouldn't be a surprise when Doug Wilson says: "the drought monitor is still showing all of our area, clear across the state in extreme drought."
If we don't receive some rain soon, the water situation will only get worse. Center pivots won't be idle for too much longer. And more of them are being installed every day.
Wilson said, "you can see if you drive around the countryside, there's a lot of new irrigation systems going in."
Unfortunately, that's what the forecasts for the next month - and for the next three months - are calling for. But the amount of water used might be determined as much by what happens in the commodity markets as by what falls from the sky.
"This year, it looks like peanut acreage will probably go up, which is kind of a good thing for the water situation because peanuts use less water than corn does," said Wilson.
But regardless of what goes in the soil, everyone is hoping for more rainfall, so that rivers, creeks and streams can gush again.
Copyright 2012 WALB. All rights reserved.
Muckalee Creek in Lee County is flowing - but has been below the normal for most of the past year.
This stork might be wondering where all of the water has gone lately. The Flint River has actually been running higher than usual because of rain in North Georgia.
This center pivot in Lee County is going to be going full blast over the next few months, if the current rainfall patterns persist.
This drawing shows the Floridan Aquifer - the reason that water is still fairly plentiful in South Georgia.
The cypress stump shows how far water levels have dropped in Muckalee Creek since the heavy rains of last Saturday.
