| Pray for Fay as drought worsens |
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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
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Posted: Sunday, August 24, 2008 8:17 am
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Drought conditions are worsening in the mid-state and Murfreesboro has re-entered the severe drought category.
The city has only seen 69 percent of its average rainfall over the past three months and is 4.6 inches below normal for the year.
Even though Murfreesboro is back into the severe drought category, Murfreesboro Water and Sewer Department Director Joe Kirchner said water levels in both the East Fork Stones River and J. Percy Priest Lake are good.
“Right now the water level at the (Watler Hill) dam is down because we’re working on repairing it,” Kirchner said.
Normally Murfreesboro pulls water from both the Walter Hill dam impoundment and Percy Priest, but the city is taking more from the dam to draw the water level down to help workers repair cracks in the concrete, along with other minor repairs.
The month of August has been abnormally dry without even a trace of rain recorded officially at the National Weather Service station at the MWSD on the Stones River.
The lack of rain makes this the driest start to any August in at least 60 years, even beating last year’s record-breaking heat wave and drought.
On average Murfreesboro should have seen 2.42 inches of rain by this point in August. By Aug. 21 of last year, the city had recorded 1.42 inches of rain, but we’re sitting on a giant goose egg.
According to the National Weather Service, only expects a slight chance of rain Sunday through Tuesday when the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay may pass through the state.
The NWS predicts Fay’s eye will continue to travel along Florida’s Gulf Coast for the next three days until a high pressure system in the Northeast moves out, allowing Fay to move slowly to the west-northwest.
But by then Fay should be a weak low pressure system, but hopefully she’ll bring some much needed rain.
Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.
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