Five wettest years in Atlanta’s history (and what else was going on)
1. 1948 recorded 71.18 inches of rain. Also that year, Bobby Jones played his last round of golf, at the East Lake Country Club.
2. 2009 recorded 69.43 inches of rain. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on “statistically unlikely” improvements in federally mandated tests in Atlanta, launching the “Atlanta cheating scandal.”
3. 1929 recorded 67.71 inches of rain. Martin Luther King Jr. was born. King would go on to win a Nobel Peace Prize and do other really cool stuff.
4. 1936 recorded 66.15 inches of rain. Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind” was published.
5. 1975 recorded 66.00 inches of rain. Ted Turner’s Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), headquartered in Atlanta, went on the air.
So far Atlanta has recorded 50.59 inches of rain this year, well above the yearly average. Experts predict that if patterns hold, 2013 could break the all-time record.
On Monday, Angela Ray, a writer and motivational speaker, found herself in Garden City, Kan., where “it was beautiful and sunny.”
Then she flew back to Atlanta. “And I quickly realized I was not in Kansas anymore,” Ray said.
Yes, even a motivational speaker can find it hard to stay motivated in this summer of our discontent.
“There are days when I am not as productive as I should be, or I just I want to sleep in,” Ray confided. “As a motivational speaker, it’s my job to inspire others, but with all the rain, I have had to take strategic steps to keep myself upbeat.”
With Atlanta on pace for one of its wettest years ever, more than a few people are finding themselves on edge.
“This has been the worst summer ever. I had these grand plans of climbing Stone Mountain every weekend, but this rain is crazy, and cramping my style,” said writer Joy Woodson. “I was going to at least go to the gym today, but I have no energy. I’ll be dragging around there, looking how I feel.”
So far in 2013, Atlanta has seen 50.59 inches of rain, which is already above the annual average. At this rate, 2013 will be one of the three wettest years since 1879, when the data were first collected.
Since June, measurable rain has been recorded at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on 40 days. The last comparable year was 2005, when it rained 21 days in July. That year saw several tropical storms, including Hurricane Katrina.
Keith Stellman, meteorologist-in-charge for the National Weather Service in Atlanta, said this year’s culprit is more prosaic: tropical moisture overrunning cooler, dryer air, creating fall and winter-type conditions.
Among the casualties: downed trees, waterlogged lawns, weeping basements and frazzled nerves.
“Persistent rain can have a negative effect on mood, especially if a given community is not accustomed to constant rainfall,” said Seth Meyers, a licensed psychologist and a weekly commentator on the Jane Velez-Mitchell show on HLN.
He said Atlanta is different from a city such as Seattle, where rain is part of the package, and people accept it as part of the local culture.
Conditioned, as Atlantans are, to equate summer with light and heat, “you’ll inevitably start feeling annoyed, depressed, or angry” when nature serves up something altogether different, Meyers said. “When a city or town experiences unusual amounts of rainfall, its inhabitants can actually start to show some signs of Seasonal Affective Disorder.”
Some people adjust more easily than others.
Fabian Williams, a local artist who specializes in visual and performance art, enjoys the rain, which he says puts him in a creative mood.
“‘I’m loving it,” Williams said. “It gives me an excuse to play jazz and contemplate my work.”
Byron Grover, a co-host of the podcast “That’s What She Said Sports,” said the rain has made him get creative, too — in ways his wife may not appreciate.
“I have spent a lot of money on indoor (golf) equipment,” he said. “I recently had to buy another automatic putter because I burned the last one out.”
In an average summer, Grover said, he would play three times a week. This summer, he has played five times in the last two months.
Tony Warmus, the owner of Cascade Golf Center, a driving range in Southwest Atlanta feels Grover’s pain – in his pocketbook.
Warmus said that, on average, he takes in about $350 a day. Over the last six days, he didn’t even reach $200. Tuesday morning, only one man was driving balls into the soggy bog.
“Plus, we can’t cut the grass, so it gets swampy out there and starts smelling like rotting vegetation,” said Warmus, who purchased the range in May 2012.
But one man’s rain is another’s parade. The first thing Mike Fortas does in the morning is check the weather, because, as the general manager of Midtown Bowling, rain is good.
“We are very much like a movie theater. We get an uptick in business, not only when it is raining, but when it is cold as well,” Fortas said.
Lest you get too depressed, Stellman said that, by Thursday, Atlanta’s weather should be back to “normal,” with temperatures in the upper 80s over the weekend.
But Peachtree City resident Kenneth Hamner is taking no chances. He’s flying to Seattle today.
Regarded as one of the gloomiest cities in the country, Seattle didn’t see a drop of rain in July and promises to be nice and sunny the rest of this week.
“It’s funny that I have to travel 2,000 miles to the rainiest city in America to see the sun again,” Hamner said.
Hopefully, his plane won’t be delayed. Today’s forecast calls for thunderstorms.
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