May 29, 2015 11:45 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

New research suggests that summer tropical storms aren't the cure all for drought conditions.

Vasu Misra, a Florida State researcher, said that contrary to popular opinion, tropical storms and hurricanes will not mitigate droughts in the southeastern United States.

"The perception that land-falling tropical cyclones serve to replenish the terrestrial water sources in many of the small watersheds in the southeastern U.S. seems to be a myth," Misra said. "This perception is widespread because the southeastern United States has the largest share of land-falling tropical cyclones in the country."

Misra and Satish Bastola from Georgia Institute of Technology concluded this after examining historical rainfall records, and using that data to create a soil moisture-based drought index for 28 watersheds across the southeastern United States for a 58-year period.

The researchers then reconstructed the database by eliminating the rainfall on days when a tropical storm or hurricane had made landfall. They found that soil moisture levels in these watersheds remained the same.

"That's because the atmospheric circulation during summer droughts often create favorable conditions for steering a tropical storm or hurricane away from land," the researchers said.

But tropical cyclones do make landfall, it is usually during a season when the soil is already wet. This does nothing for the overall soil moisture conditions, according to Misra.

According to a National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report, 37.4 percent of the contiguous United States was experiencing moderate drought at the end of April.

For the 2015 Atlantic storm season, which begins June 1, the Weather Channel has projected a total of nine named storms, five hurricanes and one major hurricane. The 30-year average is 12 named storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

The findings are detailed in the journal Climate Dynamics. 

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