Published: May 15, 2008 09:18 am            

Heavy rains slam Athens, knock out some power

The clouds opened above Athens before dawn Wednesday and drenched the city with its heaviest rains of the year.

The rain gauge at the Athens Review office collected 4.55 inches between 3 a.m. and 9:45 a.m., more than double the 1.94 inches that had fallen previously during the month.

By 5 p.m., another .33 inches of rain had accumulated. Power was still off in some neighborhoods.

With the latest rains, Athens has recorded three straight months with more than six inches of precipitation. The city had not topped the six inch mark during April and June in the past 50 years.

“We’re transitioning out of a La Niña type pattern,” National Weather Service spokesperson Nick Hampshire said. “This is normally the wettest time of the year. Probably by the beginning of June and July we won’t be seeing so much rainfall. Hopefully we can start drying out a little bit.”

La Niña happens when the ocean temperature in the eastern equatorial Pacific is cooler than usual.

Wednesday’s rains brought the 2008 total to date to 23.74 inches, still below the 27.71 recorded during the period last year. In 2007, with La Niña in full swing, Athens had 9.31 inches of rain in May, followed by 8.88 and 8.98 inches in June and July. The wettest day during that period was July 5, when 3.8 inches fell.

“This week we’ve been in a real progressive pattern with a lot of storm systems coming through,” Hampshire said. “There’s really no way of predicting what will happen a couple of months from now. We’ll have to look at the patterns over the next few weeks.

The Henderson County Sheriff’s Department received few reports of minor damage or power outages connected to the storms.

Pct. 1 Henderson County Commissioner Joe Hall said despite the downpour, the rain caused few problem in his district.

“We had a couple of roads that got flooded for a short time, but the water washed on down without any problem,” Hall said. Commissioners from the other precincts could not be reached for comment.

Around 8:15 a.m. the storms roared through the east side of the county. Some wind damage and downed tree limbs were reported three miles west of Chandler according to the NWS.

        

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