If you thought October was an exceptionally dry month, you were right.

The National Weather Service's Morristown office reported that Tri-Cities Regional Airport recorded only 1.01 inches of rain in October, which was 1.29 inches below normal.

As a result, according to the National Weather Service, drought conditions have worsened here.

"It ranked as the 13th driest October on record at Tri-Cities," the weather service Web site said. "Measurable precipitation occurred only six days, and only two of those days had more than one-quarter of an inch. The heaviest rain fell on the 24th, when 0.42 inches of rain was reported."

The driest October of the 71 years during which weather observations have been taken at Tri-Cities was in 2000, when only 0.02 inches of rainfall was recorded, according to the weather service.

In East Tennessee, "extreme drought" conditions cover most of the area, including the Knoxville and Tri-Cities metro areas, according to the drought information section of the Web site.

"This time of year is normally the driest season, so impacts may be hidden by what appear to be normal conditions. However, continued dryness, normal or not, will only deepen drought conditions.

"Springs, wells, and small streams in the mountains and foothills that rebounded in late summer are below normal again, and water is being trucked to residents in sporadic locations around the region," the weather service said.

In Greene County, bottled drinking water is being distributed to residents whose wells and springs have either gone dry or become muddy due to ongoing drought conditions.

Between Jan. 1, 2007, and Nov. 5, 2008, Tri-Cities Regional Airport has measured 51.13 inches of precipitation against an estimate of 76.63 inches for a "normal" period. That, according to the Web site, results in a precipitation deficit of 25.50 inches (or 67 percent of normal).

At the Morristown office of the weather service, meanwhile, 57.43 inches of rain and snow was measured during between Jan. 1, 2007, of midnight Nov. 5, 2008. Normal precipitation for that period should have been 82.24 inches, according to the weather service, resulting in a deficit of 24.81 inches, or 70 percent of normal.

"Things haven't changed much at all," Brian Boyd, a weather service senior hydrologist said of persistent drought conditions despite some recent rainfall.

"We're in the dry part of the year with streams already at low levels," he said. "The outlook isn't bleak, but it isn't rosy either."

He noted that even more severe drought conditions currently persist in Western North Carolina just across the mountains from East Tennessee.

Milton Orr Comments

Milton Orr, who heads Greene County's University of Tennessee Extension office, said his primary worry is what drought conditions have done to sub-soil moisture reserves.

"We just don't have any reserves," he said, noting that he worries what that might mean for next year's growing season for forage grasses and crops.

Orr said Greene County currently is in the "fourth or fifth year" of an ongoing drought that has sapped the earth of much of its sub-soil moisture.

That, he said, is why many wells have gone dry or become unusable.

"There isn't any (moisture) down deep at all," he said. "That's why so many wells are compromised."

Even if "normal" rainfall resumes, he said, it will likely be "quite some time" before sub-soil moisture levels are restored.