Extreme drought in North Alabama—what to know

It’s hard not to notice that the state of Alabama has been basically devoid of rain over the last several weeks. And the lack of rainfall statewide has placed most of Alabama in an extreme drought condition, including the Tennessee Valley.

Here’s what this means for the Huntsville area:

Drought in Alabama

About 95% of Alabama is under the same conditions as Huntsville, with more than half the state geographically experiencing severe and extreme drought, according to Alabama Drought Reach.

Several U.S. Drought Monitor recording stations from Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee recorded less than 0.50 inches of rain for the month of October with dryness that was comparable to records set in 2016 and 1963.

As a result, Alabama has taken several precautions. Fire alerts were reinstated for all 67 counties in Alabama with no burn permits being issued for any county in northern portions of the state.

The Mississippi River at Memphis remains near historic low-water thresholds, impacting barge traffic. Nashville ended up with just 0.73 inches of rain for October, with 0.43 taking place on October 30. Widespread drought expansion and degradation was introduced this week for the region.

Extreme drought was expanded significantly over northern Mississippi and Alabama and into much of southern Tennessee, according to the USDM. Extreme conditions also expanded in southern Alabama into the panhandle of Florida and southwest Georgia.

Is any rain in our future?

The National Weather Service in Huntsville is showing some rain heading our way by the end of this week, which should help, but is hardly a remedy at the moment.

Rain chances will increase in the Huntsville area Thursday (20%) and Friday (60-80%) as a cold front moves through the area. But NWS officials say this will not be enough to break the drought just yet.

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