By Billy Davis
A burn ban remains in place in Panola County, and across Mississippi, despite much-needed precipitation that fell Sunday night.

“For right now, it’s still on,” said Dan Turner, a spokesman for Gov. Haley Barbour.

The governor, responding to a month-long drought, announced a statewide burn ban Oct. 6.

The statewide ban superseded a burn ban already in place in Panola and some of its municipalities.

And it still does.

Turner said Barbour would lift the ban when he receives a recommendation from state officials. Lifting the ban in some parts of the state, but not in others, was impractical, he said.

The Sunday night thunderstorm brought hail and lightning, and dropped more than an inch of rain across Panola County.

At Sardis Lake, the field office recorded 1.03 inches of rain. The field office at Enid Lake recorded 1.21 inches of rainfall.

The readings at the area lakes fared better than an October 14 thunderstorm, when Enid recorded less than one-fifth of an inch. Sardis showed six-tenths at the time.

The National Weather Service predicted showers and thunderstorms throughout today, with the precipitation tapering off this evening.

The rain forecast for the coming months is much the same: dry weather.

The long-range prediction is above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation, according to Joe Bastardi, chief long-range forecaster for Accuweather.com.

Bastardi pointed to La Nina, the unpredictable cooling of waters in the Pacific, as the culprit. La Nina winters create harsh winters in the North and drier-than-normal winters in the South.  

He likened the predicted dry conditions to the 1950s and ‘60s, when the southern U.S. endured drought conditions and water shortages.