A recent study by Florida State University researcher Vasu Misra shows that contrary to popular belief, tropical storms do not typically end droughts in the Southeast. By looking at changes in soil moisture over time in regions where tropical storms passed, they determined that tropical storms tended to come ashore in areas where the soils were already wet. Atmospheric circulations in drought areas often helped steer tropical storms away from the areas that needed the rainfall most.
You can read a brief article about their work at https://news.fsu.edu/More-FSU-News/Study-Summer-tropical-storms-don-t-fix-drought-conditions.
