At one point during the storm that raked across Georgia this week, water was traveling down the Chattahoochee River in Cornelia at 10,000 cubic feet per second, or the equivalent of a maximum release at Buford Dam.

"That is a lot of water that far north," said Chris Lovelady, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' assistant projects manager at the dam.

Rains this week may prove to be a drought buster for Hall County, which has "abnormally dry conditions," according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Between late Tuesday night and Thursday morning, 2.33 inches of rain fell on Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport in Gainesville, according to the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.

And that bout of rain followed a weekend storm in which 1.57 inches fell at Lee Gilmer.

Area rainfall is helping to "saturate ground conditions, increase stream flow and reservoir levels," said Lisa Coghlan, spokeswoman for the corps' Mobile District.

Lake Lanier stood at 1,071.78 feet above sea level Thursday evening, or closing in on 2 feet above the normal full pool for winter. The summer full pool of 1,071 feet takes effect on May 1.

By comparison, the lake was at 1,070.3 feet on March 3.

"The corps is closely monitoring and releasing water in a controlled manner to decrease any flooding downstream of the dam," Coghlan said.

Lovelady said that so far the Buford Dam office hasn't received any calls about flooding or other property damage related to the storm.

Above-average flows from creeks and streams into the Chattahoochee "are going to be coming in through a good bit of (Friday)," he said. "We stopped generating (Wednesday) in preparation for this, so we wouldn't have any issues downstream."

Lake levels should stabilize, then begin dropping as the corps steps up releases, or as "the outflow exceeds the inflow," Lovelady said.

The Drought Monitor, released Thursday mornings based on weekly data collected until 7 a.m. Tuesdays, shows that several counties north of Hall that were in the "abnormally dry" zone last week no longer have drought conditions.

Most of Georgia is in moderate drought, while portions of southeast Georgia are in "extreme drought."

According to the weather bureau, the Hall County area should dry out over the weekend, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures reaching the upper 60s.

The next chance for rain is Monday and Tuesday, followed by another spate of dry weather and temperatures in the mid 60s.