Just six months to a developing drought, the weather is killing yields, debilitating cattle and drying lakes to their low levels over most parts of South United States.
The worst conditions are observed in the mountains of northeast Alabama and northwest Georgia.
The drought has spread from these mountains onto the Piedmont plateau, down to the plains and across 13 southern states, from Oklahoma and Texas to Florida and Virginia. Wildfires raged Thursday close to Birmingham in Alabama. These bursts have burnt almost 12,000 acres in the past 30 days.
There are places getting ready to set records for most number of days in a row without rain. The dry weather is just exacerbating the situation.
As per weather experts, unlike the Midwest and other places in the country, we are near to a drought than almost any place else.
If the drought continues, it may prompt to the kinds of water use restrictions that are common out West.
This summer was the second-hottest on record in Atlanta, where seasonal rains are still missing. During the past 30 days, a little more than two-tenths of an inch of rain has fallen in Atlanta, 94 percent below normal, and in Cartersville, about 45 miles northwest of Atlanta.
Outdoor burning has been banned due to the fire risk across parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Some of the South's best known crops such as cotton, peanuts and sweet potatoes have largely escaped damage, since they're mostly produced outside the drought area, and got rain from Hurricane Matthew and other tropical weather.
Peanut yields will be down because of the heat, drought or hurricanes. As for sweet potatoes, the drought has been both good and bad.
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