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GREENSBORO - Despite flooding, severe weather watches and chaos associated with Wednesday's storms, officials say there is a silver lining: Now, there's plenty of water in the city's reservoirs.

Until this week, Greensboro officials had been concerned the city would need water restrictions in the fall and winter.

Thanks to the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay, that no longer appears to be the case, said Allan Williams, Greensboro's director of water resources.

"Mother Nature wasn't being very cooperative (but) with this rain now, we are going to be fine," Williams said. "Unless we have an extraordinarily dry winter, we should be full by springtime."

At 10 p.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service reported that 4.93 inches of rain had fallen in 24 hours in Greensboro. Some eastern parts of the county had up to 8 inches, the weather service estimated.

The capacity of all city lakes was at 84 percent full as of 4 p.m. Wednesday, Williams said. That's up 10 percent since Tuesday.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we get above 90 percent in the coming days," Williams said. "To be at that level by the 1st of September is just super."

Weather officials said late Wednesday that Greensboro was still 4 inches below normal rainfall for the year but 2.5 inches above normal for August.

The normal rainfall up to this time of the year is 29 inches and 3.19 inches for August, weather officials said.

"We couldn't have asked for a better place for all of the rainfall," National Weather Service meteorologist Jeff Orrock said of the storm's impact. "It would have been better if it was drawn out over four days, but we'll take what we can get."

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com