LEE COUNTY, GA (WALB) -
After years of drought and prayers for rain, South Georgia finally got a really wet month.
In fact, February ended being a record breaker.
One obvious effect of all of the rain is to look at the Flint River, it's gone over it's banks in Bainbridge and is expected to crest at Moderate Flood Stage.
So how does the river get to flood stage - rain and lots of it.
Albany's unofficial rainfall total for this month was more than 18 inches. That's more than half a foot above the previous record for February and that's led to plenty of problems.
From rising creeks to flooded farm fields, South Georgians are going to remember February 2013 as the month that the rains returned.
"We had storm after storm, especially the second half of the month," said WALB News 10 Meteorologist Chris Zelman.
It's the same pattern that gave Louisiana so much rain in January - it just shifted over top of us.
"It really had to do with that southern jet stream really activated the storms that were coming in and put the storm track right over top of us," said Zelman.
The results of that shift in the pattern was record setting rains.
"That dumped between 20 and 25 inches of rain in a line between Early County and Ashburn," said Zelman.
The creeks and rivers responded to the rain the way that they usually do, by bursting out of their banks. That's meant some nervous moments for people who live along the creeks.
But the excessive rains are also causing some issues for farmers.
Doug Collins is the UGA Extension Agent for Lee County. He tells us what kinds of problems that the rains have caused. "It caused a lot of flooding and a lot of wet conditions in fields all over."
Which has caused some problems for planting.
"Our planting is going to be delayed," said Collins.
The soils are actually too moist, probably the first time that we've been able to say that for a long time. Collins says that it's a good thing that most planting isn't happening yet, with one exception.
"We'll start with corn this month, if we can get in the fields," he said.
Even though the February rains did have a large impact on the area, it actually could have been worse.
"If we had had any sort of average winter I think we would have had a lot more flooding," said Zelman.
And overall, the people most dependant on the rain - the farmers - are not too unhappy about the rain that we saw. They're probably just wishing that it didn't all happen at once.
"Farmers haven't complained too much about it," said Collins.
Now if we can just even things out a bit, then everyone will be happy in the months ahead.
One of the unexpected affects of the rain is on the Albany Marathon scheduled for this Saturday. They had to move the finish line for the race from the river trail because of the high water to the Thronateeska Heritage Center a few blocks away.
The race will still be the same distance and will still be considered as a qualifier for the Boston Marathon.
The weather for the race will be cooler and not as stormy as last year.
There was a tornado warning issued for Dougherty County during last year's race.
Fortunately, no tornadoes were spotted.
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WALB Meteorologist Chris Zelman told us that record rainfall fell in February in Albany.
Flooded farm fields are one effect of the record rains last month.
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