The drought monitor above shows most of the Big Bend and South Georgia under a moderate drought (shaded in light brown.)
The lack of rainfall doesn’t come as a surprise.
Most of the region fell behind in rainfall totals for the year.
While yearly rain totals of 40 to 50 inches of rain may seem impressive, many spots fell several inches below average for the year.
Taking that rainfall into account, Tallahassee had a total of 55.19 inches of rain this year.
Apalachicola recorded 46.49 inches of rain for the year, putting it 11.21 inches below average for its annual rainfall totals.
South Georgia also had rainfall totals that were below average.
Rainfall totals ran 7.32 inches below average for “the good life city.” Though yearly totals reset on New Year’s Day, much of the region still needs rain!
Dry, arctic air in place will keep rain chances low for much of the area.
A slight chance of showers is possible Wednesday in counties on the eastern fringe of the area, including Clinch, Echols, Hamilton, and Suwannee counties.

Despite two December rain events across the Midlands, drought conditions persist.
"We need more consistent rain events to make a dent in the drought," says SkyWACH Meteorologist Justin Kier.
The last official drought status upgrade came in late November from the South Carolina Drought Response Committee.
The SCDRC upgraded the drought status for 15 counties statewide.
Plus we’re entering into prime time historically for South Carolina wild fires."
"Drought touches so many things across the state."
The National Weather Service mentioned this during November’s Winter Weather Preparedness press conference at the state’s Emergency Management Division.
Winter rainfall is important because it recharges surface water and ground water.
One of the tools used by meteorologists and climatologists, known as the U.S. Drought Monitor, lists every county in the Midlands as being in the first stage of drought.
It lists pockets of nine Midlands counties in the second stage of drought: Aiken, Fairfield, Newberry, Richland, Lexington, Lee, Kershaw, Sumter and Saluda.

Summary: Snow fell across most of the Northeast, but it was dry across most of the contiguous United States, with much of the country receiving less than 0.10 inch of precipitation and many areas receiving nothing at all.
It was around 5-10°F above normal in the central U.S., an area that continued to see dry conditions this past week.
In general, drought expanded across parts of the West, Southern Plains, Midwest, Southeast, and Mid-Atlantic and contracted across part of the South.
In Illinois, abnormally dry (D0) and moderate drought (D1) conditions expanded across the southern and central parts of the state, where soil moisture was slowly but steadily declining as the precipitation deficits increase, stream flows were continuing to decline, and there were reports that some stock ponds and rural wells were low.
Abnormally dry conditions spread north and south in central Iowa and in the eastern portion of the state.
Looking Ahead Over the next week, beginning Tuesday December 19, a good deal of much needed precipitation is forecast to fall across much of the South and the eastern United States.
A swath from eastern Texas to North Carolina, most of Kentucky, and southern Virginia are expected to receive between two and six inches of precipitation.
Dry conditions will likely continue across the Southwest and parts of the southern Plains, where drought conditions already prevailed.
Looking two weeks out (December 26 – January 1), the cold temperatures are expected to continue, except in Florida and the Southwest.
The probability of above-average precipitation is highest over part of Montana and Texas, while below-average precipitation is most likely in the Northwest and much of the northern U.S. from the Northeast to the eastern Dakotas.

A Cape Town action group has slammed the City of Cape Town’s proposed water tariff.
“Cape Town residents are standing together to oppose the drought charge the City of Cape Town is planning to impose from 01 February 2018‚” said STOP COCT Action Group in a statement.
The drought charge is based on the value of residents’ properties and moves away from a consumption-based charge for water.
“In 2017 the City of Cape Town already approved a similar daily surcharge on electricity which will add around R250 to an electricity bill before a light was switched on.
The city is generally moving away from a consumption-based tariff system for both electricity and water‚” the organisation said.
“The additional water/electricity charges will add a whopping R500 to a property owner’s municipal account in the form of a tax.” The City of Cape Town’s decision to hold the public participation process over the festive season when people are away deprives residents the opportunity to comment on it‚ STOP COCT said.
“The Public Participation process runs from 5 December 2017 to 12 January 2018.
We at STOP COCT are of the opinion that it is underhanded tactics on behalf of the City and we encourage all residents to get involved now before the closing date of 12 January 2018.” The new charge will be aimed at residents whose houses are valued at more than R400‚000.
Businesses with properties valued at more than R50‚000 will also have to pay the levy.
Homeowners whose houses are valued at R600‚000 will pay R35 a month.

This June 6, 2016 photo shows patches of dead and dying trees near Cressman, Calif.
The state hasn’t slid back into drought yet, but it is time to start planning as if it has.
The deluge of the 2016-17 water year was almost enough (but not quite) to make Californians forget the five years of drought that preceded it.
If we take a longer view of the state’s weather, 11 of the past 17 years have been dry and warm.
In fact, 2017 was the warmest year in California on record.
No one likes the deprivations, psychological and actual, of drought.
So it’s only natural we continue to hope significant rain will sweep the state next week or next month.
But the long-range forecast suggests we’ll see sunny and dry through February, typically the end of the rainy season.
Better that we plan ahead, and live as if water is scarce, rain unpredictable and stored water precious.
If the rains arrive, then we’ll all rejoice — and be well positioned for the next, inevitable drought.

With less than half the average rainfall across many parts of western Queensland this year, rain is top of the Christmas wish-list for most graziers.
Grazier and Blackall Tambo Shire Mayor Andrew Martin said most of the area had been suffering below-average wet seasons before the drought declarations.
"You’ve heard it a million times before — we do need a good general wet season."
Cattle feed dying off While winter rain in 2016 brought plenty of seasonal herbage to the area, it missed out on rain in the summer of 2016, which is the normal wet season.
Charleville grazier Kenton Peart said while the winter herbage was welcome last year, it was not as good as the grass summer rain brought.
It just depletes your bulk if you string those below-average years together."
We’ll have to sell cows and start backing those numbers off.
‘Born optimists’ hope for 2018 rain While the Bureau of Meteorology is giving the area about a 60 per cent chance of exceeding median rainfall, graziers remain optimistic for the wet season.
"Hopefully we get a turnaround in the season and with a bit of luck we get a run of them."
"Maybe they’ll fill in [and produce a good wet season] early in the New Year, hopefully Christmas Day."

Just in time for the holidays, researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions are rolling out a new satellite-based drought severity index for climate watchers worldwide.
Relying on data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission, the index adds terrestrial water storage (groundwater) to drought assessments, augmenting commonly used tools most often based on the amount of precipitation.
“Reliable information on the frequency and intensity of drought conditions is of utmost importance to climate and meteorological scientists and government officials — and to assess drought impacts on vegetation, food production and water resources,” said Isabella Velicogna, UC Irvine professor of Earth system science and co-author of a recently published paper describing the drought severity index in the Journal of Hydrometeorology.
“This new tool provides for accurate and continuous drought monitoring, which is necessary for effective water management and impact assessment.” Velicogna and her colleagues are presenting their work related to the index at this week’s American Geophysical Union fall meeting here.
The GRACE-DSI is exceptionally reliable, according to Velicogna, because it’s based solely on satellite gravity observations, which enables it to provide globally consistent drought monitoring, even in places where ground readings are difficult to obtain.
The twin GRACE satellites capture data from a large footprint of the Earth’s surface, permitting both regional and global-scale drought monitoring.
The new index tracks groundwater storage changes, which affect soil moisture recharge and drought recovery.
Velicogna said it showed significant agreement with the other indices, demonstrating its usefulness as a drought monitoring and assessment tool.
“This new technique allows the climate community to draw a more thorough picture of the impact of drought in any corner of the world,” she said.
“In the past, we had a way of assessing meteorological drought by keeping tabs on precipitation and surface water.

John Ernst/Flickr) The Washington region was mired in drought last spring.
Then plentiful rains came in May, and the drought ended.
But, because of an abnormally dry fall, the drought is back.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows moderate drought conditions covering eastern Fairfax County, the District and most of the Maryland counties surrounding the District.
(U.S. Drought Monitor) The region had a much-drier-than-normal fall, and the dearth of precipitation has carried into the start of winter.
September, October and November had below-normal rainfall, producing a water deficit of nearly five inches in Washington.
December has tacked on two more inches to the deficit, with just 0.29 inches of rain (and melted snow) so far.
That’s largely due to the much-above-normal rainfall during two months — May and July — when 5.55 and 9.15 inches accumulated.
Aside from that, every other month has been drier than normal.
“The biggest impacts of drought are from late spring to the end of growing season,” said Chris Strong, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service.

It was around 5-10°F above normal in the central U.S., an area that continued to see dry conditions this past week.
In general, drought expanded across parts of the West, Southern Plains, Midwest, Southeast, and Mid-Atlantic and contracted across part of the South.
Moderate drought (D1) was introduced to a small region of eastern Pennsylvania while another D1 area in Maryland was extended south slightly into Virginia.
Moderate drought expanded into southern and eastern Marion County.
South For the first time in over 3 and 1/2 months, a widespread soaking rain fell over large parts of the region this week, where 1 to 2+ inches of rain was received in places, including over the extreme drought (D3) area around the Texas / Louisiana / Arkansas border, which shrank considerably.
Unfortunately, that rain did not extend to northern Texas or Oklahoma, where continued dryness led to deterioration in several areas, including Foard County just south of the Texas Panhandle, where extreme drought developed.
Abnormally dry conditions spread north and south in central Iowa and in the eastern portion of the state.
Abnormally dry conditions also spread northward over the state, especially notable in the eastern half.
Moderate drought (D1) expanded eastward in western Colorado where there was generally less than 60% of normal snowpack for the cold season to date and temperatures have been much warmer than normal in November and early December.
A swath from eastern Texas to North Carolina, most of Kentucky, and southern Virginia are expected to receive between two and six inches of precipitation.

The organisation that led the fight against e-tolls in Gauteng has a new target – Cape Town’s proposed drought levy.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse says mayor Patricia de Lille’s announcement of the levy on December 5 was flawed in four respects: – It announced the decision to introduce the levy before the public participation process was conducted; – Public participation between December 5 and January 12 coincides with the end-of-year-holiday; – The levy is based on property value rather than water consumption‚ which Outa says is unreasonable; and – The levy burdens residents with the consequences of maladministration — in this case the Department of Water and Sanitation’s failure to supply water‚ and the National Treasury’s failure to supply disaster funding.
In his letter to De Lille and city manager Achmat Ebrahim‚ Outa’s Julius Kleynhans demands a new public participation process between January 15 and February 15‚ the scrapping of the levy‚ action against the water department and a city council request to the Treasury for funding.
He says: “Outa is not against levies that will help the city recoup a percentage of its income lost due to the drought and the necessary water restrictions.
“However‚ we don’t believe that additional taxes on residents should be implemented.
We also have little faith that those increased levies or taxes will be waived after the drought.” In a statement‚ Kleynhans said the proposed levy was illegal because it was “based solely on a council decision and a statement issued by the city.
There was no gazetted notice for comment on the introduction of the decision and no indication as to which laws allows the city to apply this levy”.
He added: “The levy is based on property values instead of water consumption‚ which means it is an additional punitive tax instead of a consumption charge.
The city does not have the right to initiate its own taxes on top of existing property rates.”