I don't get why they keep saying that it's been two weeks since the last rain fall. Um, no it was Oct 21 when it last rained. It was easy to remember because it was right after my birthday. So it has been over 3 weeks.

Does anyone else look at the weather forecast for other cities and see regular rainfall and become painfully envious, if not jealous, of their forecast?

And to answer the question, I'm sure it will rain again, around the 21st which will be our monthly distribution of rain. It's becoming pretty clear it's not going to rain this week.

I now see 50% chance tomorrow night. Up from 30% a few days ago....

The big pray for rain is today, so maybe that will help:)

There is a minor Jet stream from Mexico, across the South, winds 50-100 MPH, so the rain possibilities are improved.
The major Jet stream, with winds up to 200 MPH is still on the Canadian border, West to East, where it has been all summer. When it dips down into the southeast, precipitation chances are much improved. Of course it may be the frozen type! :o(
Rb

OH great! so not only will we get practically no rain *at best*, but the wind is going to come knock everything over and make a big mess with all the leaves, trash patio furniture and whatnot.

will it ever rain again?i don't think so.my well has been dry for over 2 months now,and just keeps on gettin' drier.it's got to rain sometime though,huh?rain dance?

Well, I'm on the state line on I-20 and rain just passed through a couple hours ago. I didn't even realize they were calling for any chance. It was dark and I don't know how long it lasted but it was coming down pretty hard for a little while. Hope some of you East of here got some as well.

Danielle

Sandra at work has a "rain finger". Her "rain finger" alarm was going off yesterday. She says it never fails.

GGG

QQ...
The Jet Stream is a narrow "river" of high velocity air currents around the world, in the upper atmosphere, usually above 20,000 Ft. that can determine locations of High & Low Pressure air masses, thus movements of pressure gradients at the surface.
Important for air travel also. That is why it takes one hour longer to return to the US from Europe, than to fly there. :Rb

NWS calling for 80% for my zip code tonight! Of course it might not total more than a half inch, but that would be nice!

Yes, the percentage has increased even for me since I started this thread. I think our % tonight is 60%. Please, I hope it rains at least something!!

I watched this movie... the Weather Man starring Nicolas Cage the other day and lost all faith in the weather forecasting from that but they did say it was going to be really windy and that, I believe.

My 60% chance dropped back down to 20%. Weatherpeople are huge teases.

Well, it's raining here now and the cats are SO EXCITED! They are running in and out meowing and running up and down the hall.
Even the critters who have luxury inside, know these things!

GGG

It's been raining for a couple of hours here. Glorious!

Yes it rained! Praise the Lord!

My rainbarrels are FULL. I'm sure they overflowed...I wish I had been able to be out there in the middle of the night and emptied them so I could have kept more water...but I know have 126 gallons!

YEAH!

The reds and oranges on the radar (the heaviest rains) that I saw floated right over lake lanier.

Yes, we got about 1-2 inches here overnight. Even got some lightening and thunder with it. I imagine the majority of loose limbs and fall leaves are on the ground now.

This was wonderful!

so glad to see some rain!!didn't even know it was coming.first we heard thunder and lightning;then rain,rain,rain.the power even flicked off and on afew times.thank you jesus;thank you lord.

I saw it raining about 11:30PM last night. It didn't seem to be alot, though. At 6AM when I left, the driveway and street were dry.

I think the farther north you live, the more you got.

My gauge collected only 0.44" for the two day storm. It wasn't a lot but it came down at rate of almost 5" per hour this morning! I am very glad to hear it may have rained hard at Lanier!!!

It did, about 9/10th of an inch. Only problem was the levels still dropped a few inches because they released a record amount from the lake today. 2.6B gallons or so.

If one inch of rainfall fell over the entire lake area, that would only be about 1B gal. So they are draining at least 2½ times the amount that was deposited. The watershed area of the lake (1040 sq. Mi.) is so dry that I suspect there was very little runoff, if there was any rainfall there. I hope the ACOE morons finally read the manual and have the lake level monitor calibrated properly. If you remember in July 2006, they installed a new one and didn't calibrate it properly and proceeded to release 22B gal. of water that was unnecessary. :>(
Rb

I'm about 1/2 mile from the lake, so usually if it rains by me, it rains on the lake.

When I drove by the dam yesterday, the sign was about 1053, so it didn't go up.

They have to stop letting so much water out. I don't know what they are thinking. I do understand that the river is dry and that is causing problems down in Florida, but what would they do if there WAS no lake to keep their water flow going.

This is government policy at it's worst.

"They have to stop letting so much water out. "

They will... when it gets to 1035.

not to be confused with 1053.

Todays report from USACE states average daily outflow from Lanier is 2,624,892,862 gals., inflow from all sources, 451,129,184 gals. According to my calculator, that is 5.8X as much going out, than is coming in. How many days left until the lake is below safe drinking water level? Congress says that the main purpose of LL is flood protection and hydro generation, all other uses are incidental. Huh?

Congress says that the main purpose of LL is flood protection and hydro generation, all other uses are incidental.

I think that's what it originally was for. Apparently they need to update their documentation.

If all other uses are incidental, then I guess we don't need to be releasing any? I certainly don't think we should be releasing more than comes IN! The downstream people (and critters) have to take their lumps just like we do. If we didn't have this dam, wouldn't the mussels be dying anyway?

I saw the Chattahoochee in my neck of the woods yesterday ,before reading about the record release, and thought it seemed really full!!

The people downstream need to realize it might be better to exist on a little less for the next 6 months/year than to continue as we are now for maybe half that time or less! Isn't less water better than none?!

CNN is reporting that the USFWS has agreed with the plan to retain more water in the lake, that those darn mussels can survive with less water flow. Why did it take so long (15 days) to make that determination? Florida is claiming that the reduction in water flow will destroy their oyster industry and the ENTIRE economy of the FL panhandle. WOLF-WOLF-WOLF!!!
AL & FL have filed a Federal lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers, claiming that they do not have the authority to reduce the flow and retain water for use by Atlanta, only Congress can do that. The 3-panel Federal judges tend to agree with them, since Congressional approval for the dam in the early 1950's only addressed flood control & hydro-power generation. Back then, Atlanta was a one-horse town and had lots of trees and very few lawns to water. Don't know for sure, but I doubt that any water was drawn from Lanier until many years later.
I looked at some of the downstream lakes and the Corps has reduced the outflow from Walter F George lake and it is beginning to fill again. According to reports I've seen, it was never more than 48" below full summer pool. And AL is screaming bloody murder about THEIR economy being destroyed by a reduced water flow. It's apparently OK with FL & AL that the economy of North GA continue to suffer, just don't gore their OX!
Rb

RB, according to what I read about Fish and Wildlife normally they take 135 days to make a decision like that. So it was a quickie for them. Still seemed too long!

Our state and local governments need to place a temporary moratorium on all development. It is ridiculous that they continue to allow more businesses and homes to be built right now. Douglas county has done so and others need to follow suit.

I think about that guard station at the governors mansion leaking for 2 years before being fixed. Then after the NEW meter went in, it leaked enough water to support a family of 4 for two months! The City of Atlanta has been guessing on water use for many of its customers so how can anyone have any idea how many days our water will last?!

Obviously the 'rules' need to be rewritten if Lanier is the main water source for millions of people.

And we need to do what Clayton County is doing...

Clayton County creates an oasis

gaalan,
I agree that a moratorium should have been placed on new construction early in the summer, when it became apparent that there was going to be a severe shortfall of moisture.
That would have alleviated the necessity of establishing new lawns and landscape. Since 99% of the developers, cut all of the trees and scrape all of the vegetation off, while leveling the entire area, it requires vast amounts of water to reestablish plants in the area.
On the other hand, just think of how many illegals would be out of work, if construction were halted! And all of those new tax dollars that would stop rolling in! They might actually have have to furlough some of the unqualified city/county employees. God forbid!
Are you aware that it requires from 6 to 8 people, sometimes more, to install/change a water meter or install a cleanout Tee on a sewer line? A couple of people to do the work and the others to stand around and talk & tell jokes to keep the workers entertained! Not conjecture, from my actual observations over many years. A small water leak can require 4 or 5 vehicles, with professional drivers, that do not participate in the actual work, a supervisor, a backhoe operator, a dump truck to haul away the excess soil that was removed, since it expands tremendously, once removed and all of it will not fit back in the hole. :The following day, the water truck, with two employees, comes to wash the silt from the street, where the soil was deposited, and it is flushed down the storm drain to eventually wind up in a nearby creek. Very ecologically astute, our taxpaid employees are! Complaints to elected officials fall on deaf ears!
Rb

RB, your observation of city/state employees reflects what I've seen too. A crowd of 50 men around a job that needs maybe 3! They don't care about being seen standing around either. The city and state don't want to upset developers who donate millions to moonscape the world, nor do they want to lose the neverending tax revenue from the subdivisions and businesses they create. If it means raping the land and draining a water source thats an unfortunate side effect, just keep the money coming!!

Buford, I don't know about you but I had no idea Clayton had such a system in place. I cannot believe that Atlanta and the state didn't do something like that when Clayton did! The paper version of the article said the Clayton water authority was nationally recognized for their wetlands idea. Instead of wasting money and time in court fighting, and getting nowhere, we could have been better prepared for times like this.

Still, I don't think the Clayton system has the demands on it that Lanier does. And now the power plants are coming into question..Here is an article in today's AJC that discusses the issue:

Electricity demand guzzling state's water

BTW, good chance of rain on Thanksgiving. I guess if it does rain, we'll have a lot to be thankful for this year!