Increasing La Nina Conditions Worsen Drought Forecast for North Georgia
The Climate Prediction Center has issued their updated drought outlook for the period between October and December, 2007, and the increasing La Nina conditions have prompted forecasters to expect the drought to persist for much of North Georgia through Maryland, and removing the hope for some improvement that was in the previous outlook.
You can see the changes to the left, with the previous outlook on the top, and the current one on the bottom. The strengthening La Nina means that much of the southeast US will see warmer and dryer conditions than normal, and was a good part of the reason for the total ban on outdoor watering in North Georgia issued last week.
The warm conditions presently extend for much of the east coast for the weekend, with Atlanta’s temperatures expected to be in the 80s through next week (the normal high for this time of year is 77 degrees). Even up in Buffalo, New York, which almost a year ago suffered from a major early snowstorm is seeing temperatures more than ten degrees above normal, with tomorrow’s predicted high of 85 being 21 degrees above the normal of 64.
Upper level high pressure over Georgia is doing a good job of keeping most of the effects of some tropical low pressure in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico away. While Coastal Georgia extending to Augusta could see 2.5 inches of rain over the next three days, North Georgia is likely to see less than half an inch. Once whatever rain we get clears out of the Atlanta area by the end of the weekend, it’s likely to be this time text week before we get another chance at precipitation.
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