If it seems colder than normal for mid-November, you’re right. North Georgia got its first cold shot on Sunday after the wet weather moved out. This afternoon, another cold front passed through, although with the dry air, there wasn’t any precipitation associated with the front. Behind the front, there’s more cold air blowing in, literally. There’s a wind advisory for Tuesday, so even though temperatures in the Atlanta area will only reach the mid 40s, it will feel like the low 30s tomorrow afternoon.

We get the coldest weather of the season so far on Wednesday morning, with lows predicted in the low 20s in metro Atlanta, and freezing temperatures as far south as the Tampa area. The cold weather is unlikely to break a record, however. The record low for November 19th in Atlanta is 18 degrees, set back in 1903. Although forecasters have predicted freezing temperatures on and off for the last few weeks, much of the Atlanta area has yet to get a freeze. Wednesday should put an end to that for everybody, making the first freeze of 2008 about ten days later than normal. The record low for Atlanta in November, by the way is 2 degrees, set on November 25th, 1950. Fortunately, it won’t get that cold.

After this round of cold, things warm up, but only slightly. We should be seeing highs around 60 and lows around 40 for the last two weeks in November, instead look for highs in the upper 50s and lows in the low to mid 30s through the end of the month. What about Thanksgiving weather? The cold, dry air is going to keep most of the US dry for the next week, and following that, there’s a chance of rain moving from west to east.

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Normally at the beginning of each month, I do a post on some of the weather records from the previous month. This month’s notable record, however, has less to do with the weather than it does with the atmosphere. The Daily Tech is reporting that August was the first month in 100 years with no sunspots. Why is this significant? Historical record show that the lack of sunspots correlate closely with periods of global cooling. According to the article,

In the past 1000 years, three previous such events — the Dalton, Maunder, and Spörer Minimums, have all led to rapid cooling. One was large enough to be called a “mini ice age”. For a society dependent on agriculture, cold is more damaging than heat. The growing season shortens, yields drop, and the occurrence of crop-destroying frosts increases.

Now, I won’t say we’re going into a mini Ice Age. But, global temperatures have not been following the model predicted by the global warming agonistes; instead the increase in temperature has leveled off in recent years, corresponding to the reduced number of sunspots. Of course, since Al Gore and his crowd can’t control sunspots, much less cow flatulence, it’s much easier to blame carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles and power plants.

Hat tip to the Drudge Report for alerting me to this article.

I was reading an article in Tuesday’s New York Times about Barack Obama’s decision to hold his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in August at Invesco Stadium at Mile High Field in Denver.

In particular, this sentence caught my eye:

But Mrs. [Obama campaign strategist Anita] Dunn said the campaign had studied the weather patterns and was confident that it would not rain.

Now, I know how hard it is to predict what the weather will be more than a few days in advance. But deciding that no rain will fall during the August 28th event seems to exude the same type of confidence in weather models that global warming activists have used in making their calculations of what conditions will be 50 years from now.

In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, columnist Bret Stephens writes about global warming, and the fact that since it was first discovered 20 years ago, much of what was said has been discredited.

Recent evidence of a cooling pattern, including cooler sea surface temperatures, expanding Antarctic sea ice and colder North American winters has caused some global warming advocates to postulate that we are in a temporary break from the warming, and that it will resume after 2020. But, as Stephens notes,

If even slight global cooling remains evidence of global warming, what isn’t evidence of global warming? What we have here is a nonfalsifiable hypothesis, logically indistinguishable from claims for the existence of God. This doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist, or that global warming isn’t happening. It does mean it isn’t science.

Stephens then goes on to discuss several theories as to why the AGW crowd continues to believe as it does. Well worth a read.

This morning’s low of 62 degrees in Atlanta (and 58 degrees in my more suburban location here in Lawrenceville) was one of the lowest seen for a July morning in quite a while. It looks like the last time Atlanta saw a temperature that low in July was back on July 12, 1999. It was the lowest July reading I’ve recorded since I got my weather station back in 2002.

Tomorrow looks like a possible record breaker, especially in Macon, where the record low is 58 degrees, set in 1937, and a low of 56 is predicted. For Atlanta, there’s still a possibility, although the low record of 58 degrees is still three degrees above 1961’s record low for July 2. Enjoy it while you can, because more typical July weather comes back just in time for the Independence Day weekend.

Meanwhile the first real sign of possible tropical activity in the Atlantic basin is being tracked by the National Hurricane Center. There’s a low pressure system off the coast of Africa that is moving west, and may gain strength over the next few days. In the Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Boris continues its westerly track into nowhere, and is not likely to bother anything before it dies out this weekend.

As of today, Gwinnett County further relaxed its previous watering restrictions, which were modified on the first of April.  The county’s restrictions now match the state’s restrictions.

The big change is that you can now water newly installed landscaping (whether you install it or a professional installs it) for 10 weeks following installation 3 days per week, following the odd-even watering day rule.  Homeowners with an even address can water on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, while odd numbered addresses can water on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.  No watering is permitted in Friday. You will also need to register with the Urban Agriculture Council and take a short online course on proper watering procedures.  The printable certificate you receive after passing the course must be posted outside your home.

The previous restrictions allowing filling of pools and hand-watering of any plants for 25 minutes on the odd-even schedule remain in place.

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