Summer Drought Spreading Across Central Alabama

During the warm months, Alabama is accustomed to the scorching hot temperatures and occasional afternoon downpour to replenish the dry soils. However, we are normally not prepared for growing drought concerns like many local farmers have been worried about this year. In fact, for some farmers, these are the driest conditions they’ve had since the infamous summer drought of 2012.

While most of Alabama is experiencing abnormally dry conditions, the core of the drought is focused across northern and central Alabama. The latest release of the U.S. Drought Monitor which is updated every Thursday now shows extreme (level 4/5) drought conditions developing for a few counties in central Alabama. This area includes Walker, Winston, Marion, Fayette, Lamar, and Pickens counties. Meanwhile, surrounding areas are in a severe (level 3/5) or moderate (level 2/5) drought. The Birmingham metro is currently avoiding the worst of the dry soils, reporting abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions.

Breaking down the amount of rainfall Birmingham has seen so far this year, we are running well over four inches below average through July 23rd.

According to the monthly summary for 2024 so far, this drought has been evolving since the Spring because of the lack of rain we had from March through May. During what is typically one of our wettest times of the year, Birmingham fell a few inches below average, and we have been adding to this precipitation deficit since then.

Thankfully, much of Birmingham is starting to receive some relief from the ongoing drought conditions, but this week’s rain won’t be quite enough to break the drought. Through July 23rd, we have got over five inches of rain for the month so far, over an inch above average for where we should be during this part of July. Much of this rain fell during the Fourth of July weekend and this past week, outside of mostly dry weather this month. The additional rainfall coming today and into the upcoming weekend may allow us to close out this month with more rain than we usually see in July.

Although this year’s rainfall deficit is now shrinking due to recent heavy rainfall, we still need 10-12″ of rain over the next month from Birmingham to Gadsden to completely break the drought. Much of the I-20/I-59 corridor needs 8-10″ of rain between now and August 23rd while area-wide could use at least 6-8″ of rain. The terrain forces much of the water to channel into various spots through local rivers and tributaries in the lower valleys. Therefore, the most drought-stricken areas don’t necessarily need the most rain to end the drought.

A newly updated map will be released on Thursday, July 25th. Climatologically, the Fall months is our driest time of the year, so we could really use more rain before we naturally enter the dry season. For now, we will hope that an active hurricane season in the coming months will lead to beneficial rainfall amounts from any tropical remnants that move across central Alabama as we approach Autumn.

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