A tropical answer to prayer?
Beach officials eye the tropics as Alabama prays for rain
BY LISA NEWELL Gulf Breeze News lisa@gulfbreezenews.com

Alabama Governor Bob Riley implored state residents to pray for rain to alleviate the historic drought much of the state is facing.

Based on the weather forecast, they may soon get a tropical answer to those prayers.

Santa Rosa Island Authority General Manager Buck Lee said he watches the tropics at crownweather.com, which reported at presstime that a low was developing in the Gulf of Mexico while Tropical Depression Four was scheduled to bear down on Puerto Rico as a category two storm by Saturday.

Brian Fuchs of the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb. said the recent heat is exacerbating the drought conditions in Alabama.

"Exceptional drought conditions are spreading (from central Alabama) to Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia and south Alabama," Fuchs said, impacting crops and even trees.

"I heard that a 150-year-old oak is dropping limbs because it is being stressed by the drought," Fuchs said.

Record high temperatures and little to no rainfall have been plaguing Central Alabama so far in the month of August, leading to another significant change in the latest U.S. Drought Monitor, which expanded the Exceptional Drought (D4) area to cover almost all of Central Alabama. The Drought Monitor classifies drought within one of these five categories:

D0...Abnormally Dry D1...Moderate Drought D2...Severe Drought D3...Extreme Drought

D4...Exceptional Drought

Most of Alabama is categorized as D4.

Record high temperatures settled in across Central Alabama over the past week, with several locations reaching 104 degrees or higher. Rainfall has been very sparse so far in August, with most locations receiving less than a tenth of an inch, leading to widespread rainfall deficits of 20-plus inches for many. Average rainfall expected for August is between 3.75 and 4.25 inches.

Birmingham normally expects 35 inches of rain per year, and thus far is down 20 inches. Montgomery is down 16 inches, Anniston is down 22 inches and Tuscaloosa is down over 24 inches.

The lack of rainfall is impacting recreational use of water as well as agriculture. Most of the lakes and streams are at 10 percent of their normal levels, with Lake Martin down over 10 feet from its normal pool for this time of year.

Governor Riley declared 40 Alabama counties a disaster area due to the continuing drought.

Fuchs said the predicted active tropical season would have an immediate impact on drought-weary areas.

"It doesn't have to be a hurricane," Fuchs said, "just a tropical system."

However, while a heavy rain would help to fill streams, rivers and lakes, it could cause runoff and erosion problems and would not alleviate all the problems associated with the drought, Fuchs warns.

Meanwhile, on Pensacola Beach, Lee and his staff are already making a checklist to remove records and property from the beach in case one of these storms makes a call to Pensacola Beach.

"When a storm poses a threat, we activate Escambia EOC, then we make the decision to evacuate using rental trucks or panel vans, the records off the beach," Lee said.

The SRIA will also determine if heavy equipment and vehicles should be removed, and where is a safe distance, based on the intensity of the storm.

Lee said he sympathizes with our neighbors to the north.

"I hope the farmers do get the rain," Lee said, but he hopes it is from a front that will come from the north to push these tropical systems farther south from Pensacola Beach.

Lee said the "45 days of fear" usually come later in the season, from September 1 through October 15.