NOAA Updates Hurricane Forecast, Atlanta Sets Another Temperature Record
The heat wave in Atlanta continues. Today’s high temperature of 103 degrees recorded at 12:46 PM at Hartsfield-Jackson airport beat the previous record of 101, set back in 1980. Meanwhile, here in Lawrenceville, the temperature on Thursday also crossed the century mark, to 101.5 degrees, the highest temperature I’ve recorded since I started keeping records in 2002. It could be worse…you could be playing at the PGA Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where it’s currently 97 degrees with a heat index of 105, and expected to stay very warm.
Speaking of records, Brooklyn, New York recorded its first-ever tornado on Wednesday morning—one of three to hit New York City since recordkeeping began. The F2 storm, along with the associated torrential rainfall ground the NYC morning commute to a halt, flooding subways and stalling buses. Central Park recorded 2.5 inches of rain, while 3.47 inches of rain fell at Kennedy Airport in Queens.
With all the heat and drought in Georgia, we could certainly use some of the rain that fell on New York yesterday, and the Weather Service has come through with its updated hurricane forecast. Similar to last week’s predictions by Dr. Gray, the Weather Service is still calling for a stronger than normal season, but has dropped the number of storms by one from its original forecast.
The prediction now is for 13-16 named storms, instead of 13-17, and 7-9 hurricanes, rather than 7-10. The number of predicted intense hurricanes remains at 3. Overall, there’s an 85 percent chance of an above normal season in 2007. Forecasters say that they are more confident of their prediction now because of a favorable climate leading to storm development.
As the above chart shows, the peak of the tropical season isn’t until after Labor Day. Typically, there are one or two storms during June and July, and things don’t really start to pick up until mid-August.
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