June Rainfall "a mixed blessing," said UGA Climatologist

What your own trees and plants have been telling you is true: last month was the wettest June we’ve had since 2005, with an statewide average of eight inches.

That’s huge—some parts of Arizona get that much in a year—but it’s nowhere near the 1900 record for June of 9.34 inches, says Pam Knox, University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Agricultural Climatologist.

“Everything is really green, and it’s about as wet as it can be,” she says. “The drought has been gone from the state for a couple of months.”

Shallow aquifers are replenished, but the deep aquifers are still recharging. Rivers and streams are high, many of Georgia’s manmade lakes are at full pool. The ground is so saturated that many parts of the state are in danger of flooding.

Like any other weather pattern, the wet one we’re in now “is a mixed blessing,” Knox says. “Crops are doing well, but it’s too wet to harvest hay, and there are some fungal conditions. And the ground is too wet for late-season planting.”

While summer is a difficult season for weather prediction, she says there will likely be flooding up and down the East Coast. And while no tropical systems are showing up yet, these could further add to different regions’ water woes.

June also saw 20 days with reports of severe weather, which brought high winds and hail. Two tornadoes followed a squall line northwest to southeast in metro Atlanta on the evening of June 13, leaving $50 million worth of insured damage and thousands of Georgia Power customers without electricity.