The latest 7-day QPF map shows little precipitation is likely to fall over the next week across most of the Southeast. This is in spite of the fact that social media-rologists have been cranking out maps showing a potential snow storm for parts of the region around January 18. Most of the trusted meteorologists I follow show that any chance of snow is likely to be limited to a few snow flurries in northern Georgia and Alabama, although there could be some accumulation in higher elevations of the Southern Appalachians as well as farther north. Of course, snow is very difficult to forecast more than a day or two ahead because it depends so critically on the timing of both when moisture is available and when the air is cold enough for snow to form. Here is the Southeast, it is most common for the moist air to retreat to the east before the really cold air advances into the region, making snow unlikely in many situations.
For us, the lack of precipitation just means that the drought is unlikely to improve except in those areas that received copious rainfall in the storm that just moved through. Two UGA Weather Network stations at Dahlonega and Tiger in northeast Georgia both received over 5 inches of rain in the last storm, and rivers there are raging due to all the water that entered the watersheds during that rain event. But most people received far less than that. And of course, when it rains that hard, most of the water is not absorbed into the ground, so it provides only limited relief of soil moisture deficits and improvement of drought.
