Cobb County drought deepens as rainfall deficit grows in 2026

By Mark Woolsey

Trees, shrubs and ornamental plants  are showing signs of stress across Cobb County, particularly in East Cobb.

The sun beats down relentlessly out of a blue sky. The very ground is starting to show cracks. Vegetation is tinder dry.

Still another drought is plaguing  the Southeast-one of several that have occurred since the turn of the century. And little to no relief is in sight.

“We’re in this pattern where high pressure is blocking over our area,” says Carmen Hernandez, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in Peachtree City. “And it’s quite strong high pressure.”

“We have had a few fronts coming through”(but)…a lot of those have petered out before they got here,” she says. Normally the winter season is a recharge period providing meaningful rainfall for the southeast heading into the warmer months.

This year, it didn’t happen.

The result: the eastern 20 percent of Cobb is classified as being in extreme drought, with the rest falling into the severe drought category.

Climate data backs up that drought categorization. The National Weather Service says metro Atlanta is short by 5.78 inches of rainfall so far this year. That comes after a several-inch deficit in 2025.

University of Georgia climatologist Pam Knox has taken a look at the state’s droughts stretching back decades. She found that historically, droughts lasted about a year. Nowadays, they can hang on for 2-3 years.

“One of the things that makes the one we’re in right now so unique is that it’s drier much earlier in the year,” says Knox

Pile that on top of 2025, when rainfall pretty much shut off between  summer and November, say weather observers, it’s no wonder trees and shrubs are under sometimes- serious stress.
Once you plant  something in this area and it gets established, says Rob Trawick, the Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent for Cobb County Extension Services, “you’re pretty well good to go.”

Under normal circumstances.

“But I am seeing well-established trees just up and die, in the past year and a half particularly,” he says.

Those homeowners who want to irrigate their lawns and landscaping should water heavily but intermittently, on the order of once in several days, says Trawick. Start early and finish by 10 a.m.

But he warns that if a homeowner tries to irrigate trees, “your water bill will be as high as your mortgage payment.”

The extended dry weather also has forestry, public safety and National Weather Service officials concerned about the increasing danger of wildfires.

Past droughts have been correlated with fires in places like the Chattahoochee National Forest in North Georgia and the Okefenokee swamp on the Georgia-Florida line.

Much of North and Central Georgia including Cobb is under a high fire danger warning that is poised to continue for a while, say weather observers.

Forecasters say under the dry and hot conditions, any fire that ignites could spread very rapidly. Outdoor burning is being strongly discouraged.

Experts say the prospects we’ll see any improvement are  dim for the near term.

The Weather Service’s Herandez says “it’s going to take high pressure budging eastward into the Atlantic, to allow for Gulf and Atlantic moisture to flow into the state-and for fronts to make their way through as well.

“Even then,” she says, ‘it’s going to take multiple systems to break the drought.”

Forecasters say a tropical system taking dead aim at Georgia could also terminate the drought, but they note that any significant tropical activity is months away.

The development of a large-scale El Nino wind and sea-surface temperature pattern could also be months away, say forecasters. An El Nino can foster a cooler and weather pattern across the southern tier of states, mainly in the cooler months.

Knox says she’s unsure of when and how the region might start to see beneficial rains again, but says of the current drought, “unfortunately this looks like it’s going to be another one of the big ones.”