The rain finally arrived in late April, but even still, it only measured up to roughly half of the monthly average rainfall for the Metro Atlanta area.
As a result, there has been no change to the drought conditions across the state of Georgia compared to the previous week.
The National Drought Summary for May 5, 2026 notes:
An active weather pattern brought widespread heavy rainfall and thunderstorms to the Deep South, providing a much needed moisture boost to drought stricken areas. Total accumulations over the 7-day period topped 2 inches across much of Mississippi and Alabama, southern Georgia, and the western Florida Panhandle, and in some locations were significantly higher... While beneficial, the rainfall did little more than stabilize conditions...across much of Georgia and northern Florida, where soil moisture and streamflows remain very low. No change in the drought depiction occurred in these regions, and more sustained rainfall would be needed to begin easing drought conditions.
— https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Summary.aspx
Heavy rain showers returned for early May, most notably last night into early this morning.
As of 9am Thursday, as much as 3 to 3.5 inches of rain fell throughout Cobb, Fulton, and Hall counties.
The Southside region also received 2 to 2.5 inches of rainfall throughout Fayette, Spalding, and Coweta counties.
However, Severe to Exceptional Drought conditions are very persistent, and they take numerous rounds of soaking rains in order to end the drought.
According to NOAA, Metro Atlanta still needs another 12 inches to end the drought conditions.
To put it into perspective, we will need another 3 to 6 more of these soaking rain events to end the drought.