It was smoke, blown in from wildfires in the mountains of northern Georgia, where hundreds of firefighters were battling blazes nourished by a severe drought gripping the nation’s Southeast.
How bad is the drought? “Anything that can set off a spark is a hazard,” said Sid King, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s office in Peachtree City, Ga.
The drought started months ago. With the region’s fall dry season now in full gear, there’s not likely to be much relief. On Thursday, the U.S. Drought Monitor will release its next report on the massive drought, which stretches from eastern Texas to the Carolinas.
The Southeastern drought almost challenges the longstanding Western drought, centered in California, as the largest in the nation.
As of late October, drought conditions rated severe or exceptional — the two worst categories — covered 73% of Alabama, 50% of Georgia, 16% of South Carolina and 12% of North Carolina, according to a report by the Southeast Regional Climate Center. Half of the stream gauges in Alabama and Georgia had recorded stream flows that were far below normal.
