February Starts Warm, but May Turn Colder
For the moment, the weather seems to be running about a month ahead of the calendar. With daytime temperatures in the upper 60s for the past few days, Atlanta is now running about 5.5 degrees above normal in February. Enjoy the nice weather while it lasts, because the current thinking by the meteorologists is that a cooldown is ahead, beginning this weekend.
For the first part of President’s day week, highs will be in the upper 40s to mid 50s, with lows in the low 30s. Later in the week, we could get back to high temperatures around 60, but keep in mind that the normal high for late February is 59. The Weather Service’s 6-10 day and 8-14 day outlooks both call for colder than normal temperatures for much of the eastern US. With a ridge in the western part of the country, and a trough expected for the east, it would be reasonable to expect some rain, and it looks like we’ll get that, at least for the early part of the long range period.
The seesawing weather pattern fits right in with what we’ve seen this winter. January also started out warm, but turned colder as the month went on. Here’s how January temperatures compared to previous years around the country:
Georgia ended up being colder than normal, ranking as the 38th coldest January in the last 114 years. Atlanta actually being closer to normal, .5 degrees below average. The only part of the country warmer than normal was the Northeast, which had less snow than they would normally expect.
On the precipitation side, Atlanta recorded 2.85 inches, which was 57% of normal. Georgia ended up about normal, primarily due to wetter than normal conditions in the southern part of the state. Here’s how the entire country made out:
