January rains wash away drought conditions in much of Georgia

What a difference a month makes.

At the end of December, more than 91 percent of Georgia was showing signs of drought.

By the close of January, only about 42 percent of the state was still reporting some stage of drought conditions.

No regions of Georgia were in exceptional drought, compared to about a quarter of the state that was in that D-4 stage of drought at the close of December.

Macon ended 2016 about a foot below normal rainfall totals for the year, but it was deluged with 11.26 inches of rain in January.

The month closed more than 7 inches above average precipitation levels.

A swath of abnormally dry conditions includes all of Bibb County and stretches from Muscogee County near Columbus to Columbia and Richmond counties around Augusta.

That abnormally dry patch includes Taylor, Crawford and parts of Jones, Twiggs, Wilkinson, Baldwin, Hancock, Washington counties.

Houston and Macon counties and communities to the south are no longer reporting dry conditions.

Moderate drought conditions exist in metro Atlanta and on either side across the state.

The northern quarter of Georgia remains the driest in the state with severe drought and a pocket of extreme drought around Gilmer, Fannin and Union counties along the northern border.

The U.S. Drought Monitor not only considers rainfall, but stream flows and soil moisture when assessing conditions.

This story was originally published February 2, 2017 at 9:09 AM with the headline "January rains wash away drought conditions in much of Georgia."