It may not have been ideal for the boaters and weekenders on Lake Sinclair, but the Memorial Day weekend rain was very much needed around here.
When it was all said and done, a total of 2.88 inches of rain was recorded at the Cooperative Extension Service weather station in Tennille, which is the most proximate weather station to Milledgeville, in terms of distance and latitude.
The .97 inches on Saturday was the highest single-day total at the weather station in more than two months.
Incredibly, the 2.88 inches during the four-day holiday weekend was actually more rain than the previous two months combined. The unusually dry weather began in mid-March. The weather station in Tennille recorded “0.00” inches of rain for each of the final 15 days of March. It then rained .01 inches on April 1, which was followed by .09 on April 3 and .4 on April 5. After that, however, came 21 more straight days without any measurable rainfall. May also had been unusually dry, prior to last weekend.
Historically, the weather station in Tennille has averaged 4.88 inches of rain in March, 3.42 inches in April and 3.3 inches in May.
In the most recent Drought Monitor Map, which is a collaboration between different federal government agencies and different academic institutions, Baldwin County was listed in the D2 “severe drought” category, while much of southeast Georgia was shaded in burgundy, which is “exceptional drought.” An updated Drought Monitor Map will be released later this week.
In terms of the burgandy- shaded D4 “exceptional drought” category, the most proximate counties to Baldwin were Wheeler and Treutlen, located roughly 75 miles away to the southeast.