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TVA calls 2020 the wettest year on record for Tennessee Valley

Officials with the Tennessee Valley Authority said that 2020's rainfall broke records for the third year in a row.

Tennesseans may have noticed more rain that usual this year.

The Tennessee Valley Authority said that 2020 rainfalls broke records, and that the area broke rainfall records for three years in a row. According to officials, the Tennessee River Basin received around 70.36 inches of rain in 2020.

Officials said that the rate of rainfall is 139% above normal. They said 66.47 inches of rain fell in 2019, and 67.01 inches fell in 2018. They also said that the increase in the amount of rain can cause trouble for workers.

"It introduces a lot of challenges," said James Everett, the manager of the TVA River Forecast Center. "People at the dams working around the clock, managing those releases, taking care of generators, opening spillway gates and just managing the extra rainfall and runoff that occurs when we get this above-normal rainfall pattern."

Before 2018, the most rainfall recorded was in 1973 at 65.10 inches.

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