3 Inch Rain Storms Unusual For North Georgia
When the Gwinnett Daily Post called me yesterday to get some background information for their article on the Easter Storms, I told them that I had recorded over 3 inches of rain on Sunday here in Lawrenceville. I started to think about that a bit, and decided to find out how unusual that much precipitation in one day really is.
With the help of a weather records calculator at the National Weather Service, I was able to come up with the following table of the days more than 3 inches of rain was recorded in Atlanta and Athens, along with my data in Lawrenceville (which only goes back to 2002):
| Date | Athens | Atlanta | Lawrenceville | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3/27/05 | 2.6 | 2.97 | 3.09 | Easter Storms |
| 9/27/04 | 3.69 | 4.89 | 1.77 | Hurricane Jeanne |
| 9/16/04 | 3.52 | 4.93 | 4.57 | Hurricane Ivan |
| 9/7/04 | 3.55 | 2.84 | 3.23 | Hurricane Frances |
| 7/1/03 | 3.48 | 2.95 | 4.17 | Tropical Storm Bill |
| 9/14/02 | 3.54 | .47 | 1.26 | Tropical Storm Hanna |
| 5/4/02 | 1.9 | .75 | 3.35 | |
| 7/25/01 | 6.22 | .14 | ||
| 4/3/98 | 3.51 | .24 | ||
| 3/8/98 | 3.03 | 3.72 | ||
| 12/24/97 | 3.6 | 1.8 3 | ||
| 10/26/97 | 3.8 | 1.36 | ||
| 9/25/97 | 3.47 | 3.04 | ||
| 10/4/95 | 4.23 | 6.68 | Hurricane Opal |
As you can see, it’s unusual to see that much rain at one time — it’s only happened 14 times in the last ten years. Of course, prior to this weekend’s weather, the previous records were set last September, as the remnants of last year’s hurricanes came into Georgia. 2003 and 2002 instances of severe weather also were related to tropical storms or hurricanes.
It’s also interesting to note the wide differences in rainfall between two locations. In July, 2001, Athens had 6.22 inches, while Hartsfield Airport recorded a measly 14 hundredths of an inch. While I don’t know exactly what happened that day, my guess is that a slow moving thunderstorm must have sat on top of Clarke County for quite a while.
Enjoy the pleasant weather over the next few days. While the timing, severity and amount of rain we get later in the week depend on the interaction between two storms now on the West Coast, we’re likely to have some bad weather before things clear up over the weekend.
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