Hurricane Helene’s leftovers were good for one thing in Kentucky: the end of a Level 1 drought, statewide. State climatologist Jerry Brotzge said before last Friday, much of eastern Kentucky was experiencing a hydrological drought, in which streams, creeks and rivers were at low levels.
“Eastern Kentucky is particularly vulnerable to droughts because of the rock layers near the surface. There's not a lot of water-holding capacity for a lot of towns across eastern Kentucky, and so this rainfall couldn't have hit at a better time.”
Brotzge said it’s the latest instance in which hurricane remnants pulled Kentucky out of drought.
“When you look at the soil column, soil is roughly 25 percent water, and so when we're in this drought situation like we had prior to the hurricane, that makes for a lot of room in the soil to absorb some of that moisture. And that's what we saw here.”
Brotzge said in the latter half of the summer, much of Kentucky experienced well below normal rainfall.
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