Drought relief in store for Middle Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Less than one month ago, parts of West and Southwestern Middle Tennessee were still considered to be in Moderate to Severe Drought. Now, the newest Drought Monitor that was released on Thursday, April 11, only indicates some of those counties as “Dry,” meaning a little bit below normal in rainfall.

Only Carroll County on the other side of the Tennessee River is still considered to be in Moderate Drought.

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Do you remember last fall? In November of last year, much of the southern half of Middle Tennessee was considered to be in Extreme Drought, even Exceptional Drought in Southwest Wayne County and Southeastern Hardin County.

News 2’s Davis Nolan spoke to National Weather Service Lead Forecaster Sam Shamburger about what a difference the last five months have made.

“Since then, especially since we had our big snow event back in January, we’ve seen really frequent rainfall events pretty much every three to five days,” Shamburger pointed out. “That’s replenished the soil moisture across Middle Tennessee. We’re seeing around average amounts of soil moisture. Plus, we’ve been slightly above normal for rainfall so far this year.”

Check out the News 2 Severe Weather Resources Guide

So what’s to come?

The latest predictions from the Climate Prediction Center for the months of April, May, and June have us in above-normal precipitation, which is good news as we head into our growing season. Hopefully, this will last throughout the summer.

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