Drought Information Statement for North and Central Georgia
Valid April 16, 2026
Issued By: National Weather Service Atlanta / Peachtree City, GA
Contact Information: sr-ffc.webmaster@noaa.gov
This product will be updated April 30, 2026 or sooner if drought conditions change significantly.  
Please see all currently available products at https://drought.gov/drought-information-statements.
Please visit https://www.weather.gov/ffc/DroughtInformationStatement for previous statements. 
Please visit https://www.drought.gov/drought-status-updates for regional drought status updates.
Georgia Drought Coverage Highest in Almost Twenty Years
Peak Event Intensity: Drought area and intensity have reached their highest levels since the Fall 2025 onset, and D3 (Extreme Drought) encompasses two-thirds of Georgia. The coverage of D2-D4 is the highest since May 2007.
Increased Water Demand: Rising temperatures and "spring green-up" are accelerating hydrologic stress.



1

U.S. Drought Monitor
Link to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor for North and Central Georgia

Drought intensity and Extent:
D4 (Exceptional Drought): Emanuel, Montgomery, Telfair, Toombs, Wheeler, Wilcox
D3 (Extreme Drought): Banks, Barrow, Bibb, Butts, Catoosa, Chattahoochee, Chattooga, Clarke, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, Crawford, Crisp, Dawson, DeKalb, Dodge, Dooly, Douglas, Fannin, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gilmer, Gordon, Greene, Gwinnett, Hall, Harris, Henry, Jackson, Jasper, Johnson, Lamar, Laurens, Lumpkin, Macon, Madison, Marion, Meriwether, Monroe, Morgan, Murray, Muscogee, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Peach, Pickens, Pulaski, Rockdale, Schley, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taliaferro, Taylor, Towns, Treutlen, Union, Upson, Walker, Walton, Webster, White, Whitfield, Wilkes
D2 (Severe Drought): Bartow, Bleckley, Carroll, Cherokee, Dade, Floyd, Glascock, Hancock, Haralson, Heard, Houston, Jefferson, Jones, Paulding, Pike, Polk, Putnam, Spalding, Troup, Twiggs, Warren, Washington, Wilkinson

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Recent Change in Drought Intensity
Link to the latest 2-week and 4-week change map for Georgia.
Four Week Drought Monitor Class Change 
(image not shown)

Drought Worsened: Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Bibb, Butts, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattahoochee, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, Crawford, Crisp, Dade, Dawson, DeKalb, Dodge, Dooly, Douglas, Emanuel, Fannin, Fayette, Floyd, Forsyth, Fulton, Gilmer, Glascock, Gordon, Greene, Gwinnett, Hall, Haralson, Harris, Heard, Henry, Houston, Jasper, Jefferson, Jones, Lamar, Laurens, Lumpkin, Macon, Marion, Meriwether, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Murray, Muscogee, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Paulding, Peach, Pickens, Pike, Polk, Rockdale, Schley, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taylor, Telfair, Toombs, Towns, Troup, Twiggs, Union, Upson, Walker, Walton, Washington, Webster, Wheeler, White, Whitfield, Wilcox, Wilkes, Wilkinson
No Change: Bleckley, Chattooga, Clarke, Jackson, Madison, Pulaski, Taliaferro, Treutlen
Drought Improved: Baldwin, Butts, Emanuel, Hancock, Jasper, Johnson, Laurens, Putnam, Spalding, Warren, Washington
The 4-week change map is available here. The 1-week change map is shown right.
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Precipitation - Past 30 Days
The Additional Rainfall Information product (MISATL) is available online at weather.gov/ffc.
Through Thursday, April 16, 2026, at 8AM:
Warm temperatures have kicked off the spring green up statewide, stressing the hydrologic conditions under a new demand for water. In the last 30-days well-below-normal rainfall has been the standard, with most areas seeing under 50 percent of normal rainfall. Notably, Atlanta-area climate sites, Columbus, Athens, and Peachtree City all received less than 25 percent of normal rainfall, in some cases amounting to under two-tenths of an inch. 
Despite the overall dry map for the last 30 days, two areas did receive some higher totals: northeast Georgia mountains and far west central Georgia. In these areas, rainfall amounts were closer to 1.5 to 2.5 inches (40 to 80 percent of normal).
National Water Prediction Service link to the 30-day precipitation map for North and Central Georgia
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Temperatures - Past 30-, 7-Days
Through April 12, 2026.*
*Note, the table values are for the 30-day period ending April 12. 2026, matching the latency for the 30-day and 7-day max temperature anomaly images (right).
Over the 30 day period ending April 16, average high temperatures were well above normal (+3 to +8 degrees) over north and central Georgia. The average low temperature trends for the 30 day period (shown in the above left table), were not quite as anomalous – a testament to the drier-than-normal continental air mass that has remained in place. 
Note: The 30-day and 7-day temperature anomaly images are not available at this time. 

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Summary of Impacts
Links: See/submit Condition Monitoring Observer Reports (CMOR) and view the Drought Impacts Reporter
Hydrologic Impacts 
Streamflow continues to suffer under dry and warm conditions. As warming temperatures encourage the green up, higher demand on water sources and increased evapotranspiration will further stress water supplies and soil moisture.  
See slide 7 for additional details.

Agricultural Impacts
Water sources (e.g., holding ponds) remain low or mostly dry in many areas. Reports continue to indicate poor pasture conditions, extreme degree of loss to yield potential, complete or near crop failure, an inability to plant forage crops, extreme impact to harvests or planting, animal stress, etc. 
Reports include details of planted seeds not being able to germinate until next rain, delayed field preparation, and dry, hardened group damaging farming equipment. The Crop Progress & Condition report indicates 60% or higher of the cropland acreage “very short” in both topsoil and subsoil. 
See slide 8 for additional details.
CMOR report photo from Jones County, 4/13/26
Fire Hazard Impacts
Fire concerns have increased dramatically in the last few weeks. Partners have coordinated with NWS Atlanta and deployed meteorologists to loosen the criteria for Fire Danger Statements and Red Flag Warnings for more frequent issuances given the dry conditions. The prescribed burn season has begun, but officials have stopped burning. See slide 9 for more details.

Mitigation Actions
Please refer to your municipality and/or water provider for mitigation information.



Main Takeaways
In the last 14-days, streamflow has continued to range from Below Normal to Extremely Low in all major river basins. The lack of rain has caused continued decreases in streamflows, groundwater and reservoir levels.
Lake and Reservoir levels continue to show the impacts of a long, persistent dry period, with most reservoirs below seasonal normals. The available elevation curves for USACE projects in the NWS Peachtree City area show:








*Action zones used in some charts are defined here.
USACE Lakes
Current Action Zone
Forecast Action Zone
Carters
Top of Conservation
Zone 2
Lanier
Zone 3
Zone 3
Allatoona
Zone 3
Zone 3
West Point
Top of Conservation
Zone 2
Hydrologic Conditions and Impacts
See the USGS 120-day streamflow map here. 
Disclaimer: Following the decommissioning of USGS WaterWatch, historical maps are no longer available. The above image were generated using USGS streamflow data, and the streamflow anomaly data presented here are provisional.
Following the decommissioning of the USGS Water Watch, historical maps are no longer available. The current image was generated using the USGS streamflow data, and the streamflow anomaly data presented here are provisional. 

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Agricultural Impacts
Soil moistures remain dry over much of central and south Georgia (image right). 
Far north Georgia has the highest 0-200 cm relative soil moisture in the state, despite increased drying in the last two weeks (image far right).
Recent warm temperatures have kicked off the spring green-up period. 
Planting season typically starts this month, but reports indicate delayed planting and field preparation. 
Image Captions: 
Left: 0-200cm Relative Soil Moisture from NASA SPoRT valid April 16, 2026.
Right: 0-200 cm Relative Soil Moisture 2-week Change from NASA SPoRT valid April 16, 2026.
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Fire Hazard Impacts
Link to Wildfire Potential Outlooks from the National Interagency Coordination Center.
Keetch Byram Drought Index values over north and central Georgia are generally 200-400 in most locations, except over northeast Georgia where values are generally 125-200.

At this time, above normal wildland fire potential is expected for Georgia for April, as indicated in the Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook (far right). This above normal potential is expected to continue through Spring and into Summer.


Image Captions:
Above:  Significant Wildland Fire Potential Monthly Outlook for April 2026.
Left: Keetch Byram Drought Index for April 15, 2026.
The Wildfire Potential Outlook indicates Moderate (level 3 of 4) to High Risk (level 4 of 4) for Georgia this weekend and into next week. 
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89.7% of GA
TODAY
Current D2-D4 coverage in Georgia:
Drought: Historical Context
Link to Drought Monitor Time Series
Time series is courtesy of the US Drought Monitor. This graph shows the depiction of the D0, D1, D2, D3, and D4 drought across the state of Georgia since January 2000.
For the Drought Event beginning in September 2025, for the entire state of Georgia:
Sep 23, 2025
First D2 (Severe) Drought in Georgia:
D4 (Exceptional)
April 14, 2026 (22.4%)
Maximum drought category so far:
May 29, 2007
94.0% of GA
Last time there was at least 89.7% of GA in D2-D4:

*for this drought period
89.7% of GA
TODAY
Largest D2-D4 coverage in Georgia*:

The 7-day outlook (through April 23):

South and east of I-85, no rainfall is currently forecast.
North and west of I-85, rainfall of 0.01 to 0.5 inches is currently forecast, with a sliver of far northwest Georgia in the 0.5-1.0 inch area.
The 8-14 day outlook (April 22-28) shows a shift in weather pattern could bring higher-than-normal rain chances.
In general it takes three consecutive months of above normal rainfall to end a drought.

Precipitation Outlook
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Rapid Onset Drought Outlook
Links to the latest Climate Prediction Center 8 to 14 day Temperature Outlook and Precipitation Outlook.
Summarize conditions and impacts here

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Long-Range Outlooks
The latest monthly and seasonal outlooks can be found on the CPC homepage
For May through July:

Above normal chances of precipitation are expected across portions of central Georgia (image right). 

Above normal temperatures are expected over Georgia (far right). 
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Drought Outlook
The latest monthly and seasonal outlooks can be found on the CPC homepage
Links to the latest:
Climate Prediction Center Monthly Drought Outlook 
Climate Prediction Center Seasonal Drought Outlook 
Drought is expected to persist across north Georgia into mid-summer. Over central Georgia.

Drought Information Statements will be updated every two weeks while D2 Severe Drought (or worse) continues in north and central Georgia.
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