Gwinnett County’s best known sporting event comes to town next week — the AT&T Classic golf tournament, to be played at Sugarloaf Country Club in Duluth. This PGA tournament has suffered in the past from bad weather when it was contested during the last weekend in March, just before the Masters, including having sleet, snow and rain fall several years ago.

As a result, the PGA moved the tournament to the third weekend in May last year, and golf fans saw picture perfect weather. I’ve been keeping an eye on the long range forecasts for next week, and unfortunately, the weather picture does not look good.

The image to the right shows an animated view of the GFS model prediction for temperature, wind and 12 hour rainfall from 1 AM on Thursday through 1 PM on the Monday after the tournament. As you can see, there’s a lot of dark blue and purple moving through Georgia for most of the tournament, with the exception of Saturday morning, when things take a little break. The weather finally clears out on Sunday night, just as the Classic is supposed to end.

Of course, forecasts could change in the next 7 to 10 days or so, but the 6-10 and 8-14 day forecasts from the CPC are both calling for more than usual rainfall and cooler than normal temperatures. Accuweather has also been fairly consistent in calling for rain when the Classic is going to be played.

After a 10 day period with little or no rainfall, we’re due for some rain, and we’re likely to get some beginning on Thursday and lasting through the weekend. After some calm weather early on the week of the 12th, it’s the rain scenario outlined above.

As someone who enjoys the golf tournament every year, I’ll be disappointed if the forecast comes true. On the other hand, given the drought, I’ll take the rain compared to last year, when only 1.1 inch of rain fell for the entire month of May.

As of today, Gwinnett County further relaxed its previous watering restrictions, which were modified on the first of April.  The county’s restrictions now match the state’s restrictions.

The big change is that you can now water newly installed landscaping (whether you install it or a professional installs it) for 10 weeks following installation 3 days per week, following the odd-even watering day rule.  Homeowners with an even address can water on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, while odd numbered addresses can water on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.  No watering is permitted in Friday. You will also need to register with the Urban Agriculture Council and take a short online course on proper watering procedures.  The printable certificate you receive after passing the course must be posted outside your home.

The previous restrictions allowing filling of pools and hand-watering of any plants for 25 minutes on the odd-even schedule remain in place.

Read the rest of this entry »

It looks like we could have a record cold temperature this evening/Wednesday morning.  The current record low for April 30th is 40 degrees set back in 1969.  Forecasters are calling for a low of 36 in Lawrenceville, but only 42 for Hartsfield Airport, so it’s going to be close.  The Weather Service has issued a frost advisory for most of the state north of Macon.

The cold air is caused by Canadian high pressure sweeping into the area following last weekend’s rain.  Usually these cold blasts end around the first of April because developing high pressure off the Atlantic Coast (the proverbial Bermuda High) strengthens enough to counteract the approach of the cold front from the north.  Between this round and the cold weather back in the middle of the month, we’re likely to end April with below normal temperatures for the month.  You can be glad you’re not in Chicago or as far south as West Virginia, which have had a late season snowfall.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been about ten days since I last posted. I guess you can blame the lack of posting on a combination of chamber of commerce weather in the Atlanta area, my trying to get the garden in shape and a busy April that is taking me out of town three times this month.

There really hasn’t been much to complain about the weather since the cold threat back on April 14-15.  Even that turned out to be a bust, with temperatures hovering just above freezing. We seem to have settled into a pattern of beautiful weekday weather, with a cold front coming in on the weekend to bring rain.  It looks like that pattern might continue for another week or two.  Rain is expected both this weekend and next. It’s bad news for the weekend gardener trying to plant annuals in wet soil.

Of course, wet soils are the least of the problems for much of the Midwest and Northeast, which have been inundated with precipitation, leading to flooding.  Missouri had its second wettest March ever.  Cape Girardeau, Missouri had 13.84 inches of rain in 48 hours last month–about what the Atlanta area has seen all year.  Pennsylvania and New York had their third wettest March since recordkeeping began.  Georgia ended up having its 36th driest month, however it appears that for a change, the northern half of the state had closer to normal rainfall than the southern half.

Read the rest of this entry »

It looks like Old Man Winter is going to take one more shot at Georgia over the next few days, and that could be bad news for gardeners and farmers across the state for a second year in a row. The Weather Service is calling for low temperatures in Lawrenceville of 36 degrees on Sunday night and Tuesday night, and 34 degrees Monday night. Across the state, lows are expected to be in the upper 30s Monday morning, and 31 in Atlanta, 32 in Athens, and 30 in Macon on Tuesday morning.

Accuweather.com is calling for lows of 34 on Sunday night, 30 Monday night and 39 Tuesday Night, while Weather.com says it will be 36 Sunday night, 31 on Monday and 33 on Tuesday.  In comparison, temperatures dropped to 28 degrees the nights of April 6 and 7, 2007, the infamous Easter Freeze that caused widespread damage to spring flowers and crops.

My guess is that the damage won’t be as bad as what we saw last year– it looks like it will be a little warmer– but I wouldn’t suggest you plant any annuals this weekend.  You should also bring in any houseplants or container plants you’ve set outside until at least Wednesday. If the worst does happen, Walter Reeves has a good article on coping with freeze damage.

Read the rest of this entry »