What Will Happen to Lake Water Levels? Watch the Rivers

Despite all the recent rain around Lake Lanier it seems that water levels on the lake continue to drop.

The principal reason for the continually dropping water levels? The rivers flowing into Lake Lanier remain low. State Climatologist David Stooksbury put it this way:

 

"The Chestatee is at the sixth percentile, meaning 94 out of 100 years, we would expect there to be more water. The Chattahoochee is at the eighth percentile, meaning more water in 92 out of 100 years,"

 What that means is that while the topsoil is getting wet, the last two years of drought have left the soil dry. North Georgia is still 16 inches below normal rainfall for the year, half of the typical annual precipitation by this time.

"That rainfall has just gotten into the top layer of soil, so it's not getting into the deep soil," Stooksbury said. "We have very little cushion. Seven to 10 days without rainfall you're going to see everything turn brown again."