From Friday until midnight Sunday, a total of 0.54 inches of rain fell at Normandy, bringing the level of the lake up to 862.18 feet above sea level.

Total amount of rainfall this month at Normandy is 3.39 inches, according to TVA data, and only a total of 8.53 inches of rain have fallen at Normandy Lake since the first of the year, including a total of 1.84 inches in January, and 3.30 inches in February.

Inflow to the lake is estimated to be 140 cubic feet per second and the level is expected to rise to 862.30 feet by Wednesday. Two weeks ago, the level was at 860.15 feet and three weeks ago, it sat at 858.66 feet.

Doug Murphy of the Shelbyville-based Tennessee Duck River Agency said recently that the lake gains a foot of elevation for every inch of rain that falls in the region.

The area is now in the third year of a drought which started in March 2006, with the National Weather Service officially predicting three to five more years of drought, with some speculation that it might last longer.

Possible remedies for the area's water problems suggested by TVA in a 2000 report include raising Normandy Dam, to increase the storage capacity of Normandy Lake during times of rainfall, or to run a pipeline from Time Ford Lake to the Duck River.

Typically, the Tennessee River watershed has one of the highest annual rainfall totals of any watershed in the United States, with an average of 51 inches of rain a year and the monthly average rainfall in the Tennessee Valley ranging from 3.0 to 5.5 inches, TVA says.

Murphy said last month that between 10 to 15 more inches of precipitation over the next three months would be needed to make "a significant impact" to the level of the lake.

It would take an average of five inches a month to get the level up to the lake's winter pool as stated in Tennessee Valley Authority's operating guidelines for the reservoir, Murphy said in February.