David Zierden, the Florida State Climatologist, sends this report:

North Florida including the Panhandle, south Alabama, and southwest Georgia have experienced a very wet spring this year, topped off by the flooding rains that hit the Pensacola and Mobile area on April 28-30.  But the recent rainfall is just the latest in a string of what has been a very wet year and a half.  
 
The calendar year of 2013 ranked as the third wettest on record for the State of Georgia as a whole, and Alabama was in the top ten.  The wet year of 2013 also featured the wettest summer (June through August) on record for the states of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, while Alabama ranked fifth wettest.  
 
Throughout these months of excessive rainfall, one particular location near Geneva in South Alabama has consistently been hit with heavy rainfall.  The NWS Cooperative station in Geneva measured a record 92.42 inches in 2013, highlighted by 23.51 inches in Feb. and 19.18 inches in July.  This record was over 15 inches higher than the previous record set in 2009.
It has been more of the same in 2014, with year-to-date totals of 35.36 inches including 14.98 inches in April.  This is the fourth wettest start to a year on record for Geneva.  
The number of heavy rainfall events has also been astounding.  Over the past year beginning on May 12, 2013, Niceville, Florida has recorded a record 19 days with 2 inches or more of rainfall.  Geneva was once again right behind with a record 16 days.Another wet system is on the doorstep for south Alabama (and much of the Southeast). Right now the heavy rainfall is just to the  west, but it will push east throughout the night.  Looks like another 2 inches or more is forecasted south Alabama.  Yesterday the NWS was forecasting lesser amounts to the east, but now they have upped the 1-2 inch predictions all the way to the Suwannee River.

Brandon Dillard with Auburn University Extension at Headland, Alabama, reports that many farmers in the Geneva area have “zero acres planted” at this late date.  Others are only at around 10%.  A string of good weather is desperately needed to dry the fields enough that equipment can operate.The good news is that there should be a drying spell after this system clears.  No major systems for the next 7 days after this one.  Attached is the 6-10 day outlook, which shows a definite drying trend.

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