Southeast Drought: Not Quite So Dry, Thank You

The record-breaking drought that has gripped the Southeastern U.S. for the better part of a year continues to alleviate, although a couple dry months, especially in the summer, would put the region right back where it was.

At right is the current map from the U.S. Drought monitor, which shows, for the first time in many months, that no part of the Southeast in now classified as in an "exceptional" drought. Three months ago, nearly of a quarter of the Southeast was in an exceptional drought state, so that's considerable improvement.

By the same token, it's still dry: 75% of the region continues to be "abnormally dry" or worse, which is still better than 90% at the beginning of the year.

The big question: will municipalities in the South--especially fast-growing ones such as in and around Atlanta and the Research Triangle in NC--learn from this drought and invest in much-needed reservoir capacity, or will they just wait for the next one, which could be worse? (I.e., will they be like San Diego, after a round of wildfires earlier in the decade, which did nothing to expand it's fire coverage, or will they take the right steps to assure adequate water supplies?)