It’s no surprise to long-suffering Georgians, but state climatologist David Emory Stooksbury on Thursday declared this summer one of the hottest on record.
What's more, Channel 2 Action News chief meteorologist Glenn Burns predicts "two to three more summers this hot and dry."
Stooksbury, an associate professor at the University of Georgia, said Alma, Athens, Augusta, Columbus and Savannah reported the highest average temperatures ever for the months of June, July and August; Macon, the second-highest, and Atlanta, the third.
Atlanta, with 133 years of data, had an average mean temperature of 82.3 degrees – 3.6 degrees above average – and the average high of 92.5 degrees, 4.5 degrees above average, Stooksbury said in a news release.
Also, he said, this summer has been Atlanta’s the ninth driest on record, with only 6.38 inches of rain recorded – roughly half the average rainfall, Stooksbury said.
Burns attributes the scorching conditions to sunspots.
As hot as this summer has been for Atlanta, it was even hotter in the summers of 1980 and 1993. This pattern, Burns said, “corresponds perfectly with the active solar cycles/sunspot cycle in 1980 and 1993. Sunspot peaks occurred in 1980 and 1993, and we are approaching the peak of our current cycle now.”
Pam Knox, assistant state climatologist, said hot and dry also go together.
“When we’re dry, more energy from the sun goes into heating the soil rather than evaporating water. We tend to have years with highest daytime temperatures in times of drought,” Knox said a in a telephone interview.
A persistent high-pressure system extending from Bermuda west through Georgia has suppressed thunderstorm formation, ensuring “day after day of nice, clear sunny skies and no chance of rain that could come in and cool things down,” Knox said.
“The medium term outlook – the next few months – really depends on the tropics. Our best chance of breaking the drought right now is to have a tropical storm come through,” she said.
Long-term, she said, there are signs that the region could be in for another winter of La Niña, a weather system that brings drier, warmer conditions that normal.
“If La Niña does come back this winter, the outlook for early spring planting season is not good,” Knox said. “It could mean the next growing season might be difficult for people to get crops in and have them germinate if the ground is still dry.”
For people in urban areas like metro Atlanta, “if drought persists for a long time, water resources might be an issue. It’s not the case right now. Reservoirs are down, but there are a lot of reserves still available.”
On Wednesday, Stooksbury declared that most of Georgia south of the mountains – which means most of the state, and every county south of Atlanta – is now in extreme drought.
Absent a tropical storm dropping significant amounts of rain in the new few months, the state can expect below-normal rainfall and above-normal temperatures, he said – meaning the soil will get even more parched, stream flows and reservoir levels will keep dropping and the chances of wildfire “are expected to remain high to extreme.”
Metro Atlanta is experiencing a mix of moderate, severe and extreme drought.
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