With April turning into May in just an hour, a look at the preliminary monthly climate statistics shows that most of the region was warmer than normal with the exception of the Florida Peninsula and parts of southern AL and GA, where rain was heavy. Precipitation varied quite a bit across the region. The driest areas were across most of North Carolina, where most of the state received less than 50% of their normal rainfall and in southern Florida, where rainfall amounts have also been very low, although with lower temperatures the water stress may not have been quite as high. The wettest area of the region was in southern Georgia and a strip of the Florida Panhandle, which received rain amounts as much as 5 inches above normal. This continuation of wet conditions caused some problems for farmers who were not able to get field work done, resulting in some producers switching from planting corn to cotton or peanuts instead because of the delay in getting seed into the ground. The wet conditions have also caused problems with seedling diseases caused by fungus, which weaken the newly emerged plants.
