Drought eases, water wars persist

It's raining again in the Southeast. Much of the drought-parched region has been deluged recently by winter downpours, including weekend storms that battered the downtown business district and a swath of north Georgia.

The drought has not ended, but it has eased across most of the region, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor and the National Weather Service.

Lake Purdy, the main drinking water supply for Birmingham, Ala., is at normal levels for the first time in almost a year. From Jan. 1 through Sunday, Birmingham received 12.09 inches of rain, just below the average of 12.78.

Some Alabama farmers are finding fields too wet to prepare for spring planting. North Carolina dropped recently from 39 to zero counties in the worst category of drought.

Here in Atlanta, where stark pictures of a drier-by-the-day Lake Lanier pushed the drought into the national spotlight last fall, the drought is essentially over, says Pat Stevens, chief of the environmental planning division of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

target="_blank"> more from USA Today