This year could be the warmest on record for metro Atlanta if temperatures hold steady during the final nine days of the month.
Above-average temperatures were recorded over most of the Southeast during autumn with several extremes, according to the Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Southeast Region.
Atlanta; Montgomery, Alabama; and Pensacola, Florida, all broke their warmest October daily maximum temperature records.
That helped push overall mean temperatures for the year up to the highest levels recorded in metro Atlanta and led to a flash drought that peaked in mid-October and officially ended this month. The unseasonably warm weather combined with below-average rainfall resulted in pockets of extreme drought in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and the Florida Panhandle.
>> READ MORE: Consistent rains bring an end to Georgia drought
“It is a function of the times we live in now,” said Bill Murphey, state climatologist for the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. “We are looking at Atlanta, so there are other factors at play -- an increase in population, the urban heat island effect, man-made impacts and natural cycles too.”
The average mean temperature for the Atlanta area as observed from Jan 1, 2019, through Dec. 22, 2019, is 66.4 degrees, according to data from the Southeast Regional Climate Center. If that remains above 65.9 degrees (the average mean temperature for 2016), this year will have been the warmest year on record since the first full year of data was collected in 1879.
Murphey said looking at the forecast for the remainder of the month, it could get colder toward the end of December, but there doesn’t appear to be a buildup of cold air that could lead to a significant drop in temperature or freezing rain.
“It will be close either way,” Murphey said. “If we stay above 65.8 ... I would say we have a good chance,” but “It is not a slam dunk quite yet.”
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