Heading into what are typically the driest months, Rome and Floyd County are about 6.8 inches behind the average for the year.

According to the Southeast Regional Climate Center, the average amount of rain that Rome gets through the month of September is 41.36 inches. Through 5 p.m. Sunday, Rome had received 34.56 inches.

The October average, according to data that goes back to 1893, is 3.01 inches.

Todd Hice, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency serving Floyd, Polk, and Chattooga, Walker Dade and Catoosa counties of Northwest Georgia said that rainfall across the region has been spotty all year.

The corn crop across much of the Coosa Valley was fair to poor in Hice’s estimation.

“The other crops are looking pretty well,” Hice said. “We’re going to have a pretty good cotton crop and pretty good soybean crop. I don’t know what kind of yields yet but they’re looking really good, what I’ve seen.”

Pastures have suffered across the region and that’s been another disappointment for cattlemen. There isn’t much grass out there.

“Rains we got back in July helped out a lot but it hasn’t rained much since then,” Hice said. “We’ve had to feed some cattle hay (in addition to letting them graze). Some people have and some people haven’t.”

Floyd County Extension Director Keith Mickler said the weather has been more adverse than ever before for farmers.

“We had a quicker start in the spring. It got warm earlier. Then we had a little cool spell, then we had a very hot spell, then a dry spell,” Mickler said. “You can control water if you irrigate, but you can’t control how hot it gets and it was hot early this summer.

The first week of October includes at least a 20 percent chance of showers every day except Wednesday.