ATLANTA (AP) - Although the Atlanta area has been drenched with
rain, the National Weather Service says it may not be enough to put
a dent in the state's drought or avoid a record-low year for rainfall.

Meteorologist Robert Beasley of the National Weather Service says
four-tenths of an inch of rain has fallen in the Atlanta area.

Although the area ultimately may get up to three-quarters of an
inch of rain, Beasley says that isn't enough to reverse water
shortfalls caused by the drought.

Beasley says the area has three or four chances of additional
rain before the end of the year.

But he says it will take ``substantial long-term rains to get us
out of this category of exceptional drought.''