Warmer temperatures, budding flowers and more students skipping class. Spring has arrived in East Tennessee.

But behind the vibrant greens and delicate pastels associated with the season is the shadow of impacts from last year's drought that still linger in the landscape.

According to WBIR.com, Knoxville received only 32.47 inches of rain in 2007, falling 14.53 inches short of the yearly average. The return of green grass and spring blossoms offer signs that the earth is recovering from last year's plight, but experts warn that the effects of last year's drought could impact the earth for years to come.

"Last year's drought will particularly impact trees and shrubs for four to five years out," said Neal Denton, director and extension agent for the University of Tennessee Extension-Knox County.

The drought also impacted ground water levels, leaf water storage, wells, and other natural elements, according to Denton. While the recent rainfall has helped, it is only a start.

"It hasn't even begun to get down deep enough to help the ground recover from the drought," he said.

"It makes me wonder how much rain we have to get now in order to make up for what we lost before," said Alyssa Walker, a journalism and electronic media student at UT. "And how that will effect the summer, too. It isn't as much fun if it's raining all the time, but at the same time, we need that in order to get the plants back to what they need and get our water reserves back to what they need."

This year already shows promise of improvement in rainfall totals.

"We're pretty close to normal rainfall right now," said Denton.

According to WBIR, Knoxville is currently down only 1.86 inches for the year. During the month of March, Knoxville received 4.33 inches of precipitation, almost right on track with World Climate's average rainfall totals for the area. As long as drought conditions do not return, the earth could be on its way to healing from last year's trauma.