The Good Side of Fay

Tropical Storm Fay's remants have slowly been moving through the Southeast all week, bringing much needed rain to a number of parched locales.

As we had predicted, Fay's made a big dent in the long-running Southeast drought, although it would take a couple more storms like it to really put an end to problem.

Above is the latest from the U.S. Drought Monitor. Be mindful that this only includes rainfall through 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday, so next week's report will show an even further shrinking of the drought, especially in SC, NC and southwestern Va.

Nonetheless, we see that for the first time in more than a year, Florida is drought-free. At the start of this year, more than 90% of Florida was in some stage of drought. Likewise, the rest of the Southeast showed a dramatic week-to-week decrease in all categories of drought.

Hurricanes and tropical storms can cause a lot of damage and disruption, but when you hear scientists discuss various schemes to steer such storms away from the U.S. mainland, just remember there is another side to these monsters of nature--they are a major source of fresh water in many parts of the country.