March, 2006: Slightly Cooler Temperatures; Dry Weather
March is likely to live up to the traditional saying, ‘In like a lion, out like a lamb’. From a temperature perspective, the month ended up about half a degree cooler than normal, on average. Atlanta’s normal mean temperature through March 29th is 54 degrees, while down at the Airport, the actual mean was 53.5, and here in Lawrenceville, 53.4 degrees through this evening. The means don’t tell the whole story, however. Despite breaking 80 degrees on the 11th and 12th, a cool period between the 20th and the 28th brought the month’s only freezing temperatures, with a low of 27.8 degrees recorded on the 27th.
A bit more worrisome is the precipitation trend. The image to the right shows the percentage of normal rainfall for 2006 year to date in Georgia. Most of the Atlanta metro area has had between 60 and 90% of normal rainfall, an the situation is worse for the rest of the state. I’ve recorded only 2.72 inches of rain here, while Atlanta’s normal for March is 5.3 inches. Even if we get an expected half inch of rain Friday night, it’s still only half of normal.
Our weather this spring is being influenced by a weak La Nina — the condition where sea surface temperatures in the Pacific are lower than average. This tends to cause warm winter conditions and dryer than usual weather in the Southeast US.
Right now, the forecast is for normal than usual temperatures and less precipitation than normal, at least for the next two weeks. The three month outlook from April through June pretty much calls for the same thing.
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