Preliminary figures from the National Climactic Data Center indicates that nationwide, we had the seventh warmest and 22nd driest September since records began 113 years ago. Most of the country to the east of the Rocky Mountains was somewhat warmer than normal, while the west coast had close to normal temperatures. The southwest had above normal precipitation compared to averages, while the east and midwest saw below normal rainfall, and the rest of the country was about normal.

In Georgia, the average temperature of 75.6 degrees was the 44th warmest, and the state average precipitation of 2.98 inches was the 37th driest in the 113 years recorded.

Now that the summer months are over, take a look at how the precipitation we received from April through September, 2007 compares to the same months in previous years:

Both Tennessee and North Carolina has their driest spring-summer periods ever recorded, while Texas and Oklahoma had their second wettest. Interestingly enough, despite the seriousness of the drought in Georgia, it was only the seventh driest 6 month summer period ever. In addition, looking at the past year, it was only the ninth driest October-September period in history. Below is a table of the top eleven driest periods in Georgia from April through September:

With 2007 ranking the sixth driest, and 2006 ranking the eleventh driest, you can see why North Georgia is in an historic drought. Keep in mind, also, that middle and south Georgia benefited from rain from tropical storm Barry and summer thunderstorms that missed the northern part of the state. The other factor in the intensity of the drought is the growth of population and water use in the state — a factor that can’t be measured by rainfall alone.

Posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 8:47 am
Categories: Scorecards.
Tags: Drought, Precipitation, Temperatures.
RSS 2.0 Comments Feed  •  Leave a Response  •  Trackback