We’re at the start of the big seasonal change from cold weather to warm, and the evidence is the powerful storm that damaged buildings yesterday in Alabama and Georgia. Even though we’re about a month away from the ‘heavy’ tornado season, the powerful temperature differentials that produce these storms can occur any time. The picture below shows a satellite image of the storm at about noon on March 1st:

Fortunately for North Georgia, there wasn’t any major damage, and the inch and a half of rainfall made some progress in denting the rainfall deficit. You would have to go back to the middle of November to find the last time we had that much rain on one day.

Winter will give us a reminder of its presence over the weekend, as temperatures Sunday night will drop below 30 degrees for the first time since President’s Day. The cold won’t last long, however, and you can look for warmer than normal temperatures through the middle of the month. March is one of the months with rapidly changing normals: the first of the month normally has a low of 38 and a high of 59; by the end of the month, our low is normally 46, and the high temperature has shot up by ten degrees to 69.

Although it’s not strictly weather related, be on the lookout tomorrow for a total eclipse of the moon. Totality occurs at 6:20 PM, and the moonrise in Lawrenceville is at 6:30 PM, just before sunset at 6:34. As the moon rises, it will be almost totally eclipsed, and will be partially eclipsed until about 8 PM. The forecast is for partly cloudy skies Saturday night, but with any luck, you’ll be able to see one of the two eclipses this year. The other one, in August, will only be visible in the early morning hours.

Posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Categories: Observed Weather.
Tags: Unusual WX, Winter Storms.
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