Warm Weather Brings out Early Spring
With temperatures recorded at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta 4.5 degrees above normal for December as a whole, and 8.9 degrees above normal for the first six days of January, one could be forgiven for asking, “What happened to Winter?”
Even Mother Nature seems confused. Looking around the yard, I have a few daffodils blooming, the Lenten Roses have bloomed, and I even see that the Daphne is beginning to bloom. On Ronald Reagan Parkway, the Pussy Willows are coming out. All of this is about a month ahead of schedule. In New York City, the entire month of December went without any measurable snowfall–the first time that has happened since recordkeeping began.
The US has been in what’s called a split flow jet stream pattern for the last month or so, with the northern jet stream moving west to east across the northern states, and the southern jet stream moving across the southern states. The effect of this is to keep all the cold Canadian air north of the border, and to bring fronts across the Gulf of Mexico, which is what we saw with the Christmas Day storms, which brought tornadoes to central Florida, and yesterday’s storm, where a violent squall line brought an F1 tornado to the McDonough area, and rain across much of Georgia around lunchtime.
This benign weather pattern will break down by the Saturday the 13th, bringing cold air out of Canada initially into the Plains states, and then moving further east. For the week of January 15th, the Atlanta area will be lucky to see high temperatures of 50 degrees. Beyond then, we’ll likely see more typical winter weather through February.
Before then, we’re going to get two storms. Rain tomorrow could bring 1.5 inches to the area, as a front will stall over Georgia during the day. Things clear out for the work week, with somewhat lower but still relatively warm temperatures and nice weather until next weekend, when another front ahead of the colder air again brings the possibility of rainfall.
So, if your outdoor plants seem a bit overeager, don’t worry too much. There will be plenty of colder weather to slow them down.
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