As Tropical Storm Gert appears headed out to sea, the Hall County area’s rain deficit gets larger and the water level at Lake Lanier keeps dropping.

Will there be any storm, tropical or gully washer that can bring relief to our parched earth?
Maybe.

The Atlantic basin is expected to see an above-normal hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends Nov. 30, and the season has yet to reach its peak.

“That could be a game changer,” said Lisa Coghlan, spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ office in Mobile, Ala.

For now, though, yards are getting browner and shorelines more exposed.

On Monday, Buford Dam had an unplanned water release starting at 10:55 a.m. to increase flows downstream.

The corps’ statement on the matter: “We had to increase generation this morning to the daily schedule to help send water downstream to ensure the 750 (cubic feet per second) cfs was met at Peachtree Creek.

“Over the weekend, Morgan Falls Dam (at the Cobb-Fulton County line) got too low and additional water was needed to ensure flows were met.”

Coghlan said more unscheduled releases could occur if the drought doesn’t loosen its grip.

Lake Lanier stood at 1,066 feet above sea level Monday, or 5 feet below the normal full pool of 1,071 feet.

It was threatening to drop into the 1,065-foot range, an area the lake hasn’t seen since the spring of 2009, when the 2007-2009 drought was still going strong.

While that drought was much more severe, draining Lanier to a historic low of 1,050.79 feet on Dec. 26, 2007, the mostly dry conditions we’re going through now aren’t something to dismiss.

Joanna Cloud, executive director of the Gainesville-based Lake Lanier Association, said she is concerned the lake is 5 feet under pool “heading into our historically dry season.”

“We know from experience, once Lake Lanier drops significantly, it is far less likely to refill the following year,” she said.

The U.S. Drought Monitor shows that most of South Georgia is in extreme drought. Portions of the state, including the Savannah area, have a worse label, “exceptional drought.”

Hall County is suffering from “abnormally dry conditions” and a sliver of East Hall has slipped into “moderate drought.”

With no substantial rainfall this week, more of Hall County could be in “moderate drought” when a new drought report is issued on Thursday.

Lack of rainfall, particularly in South Georgia, is driving the lower elevations at Lake Lanier, which is part of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin that flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

No rain is in the forecast until Thursday for the Hall County area, according to the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.

A 20 percent chance for thunderstorms runs from Thursday through Sunday.