Summer ended hot and dry, but relief possible by the weekend

By Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

With Wednesday night's fall equinox, Atlanta ended the summer with a 2010 rainfall deficit of nearly two inches.

Atlanta began September with a rain surplus for the year of .91 inch, but only .14 inch of rain has fallen this month in the city’s official gauge at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. That’s 2.91 inches below normal for the first three weeks of September, pushing the city’s deficit for the year to 1.87 inches, according to the National Weather Service. And we're not even halfway through the normally dry months of September of October.

State climatologist David Stooksbury said  last week that "mild to moderate" drought conditions exist in much of west and south Georgia. Included in those areas are Douglas, Carroll and Paulding counties in metro Atlanta.

“With temperatures remaining above normal and rainfall below normal, soils continue to dry across the entire state,” Stooksbury said.

The dry conditions have also meant an increase in wildfire danger, with Stooksbury rating the wildfire danger across the state as “high to extreme.”

“Because of the dryness, any fire, regardless of how small, can quickly get out of control,” Stooksbury said.

While continued dry weather is forecast for metro Atlanta through Friday, forecasters are promising a slight chance of rain beginning Saturday and continuing through Tuesday.

Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Karen Minton put the chance of weekend rain at 30 percent for Saturday, increasing to 40 percent on Sunday.

Afternoon highs should remain in the 90s through Friday, but only reach the mid- to upper 80s over the weekend.