Despite predictions of a reasonable chance of rain this past weekend, it looks like June will end up adding to the North Georgia drought. Overall, it ended up being drier than normal and warmer than normal in the northern half of the Peach state.

The official Atlanta rain gauge at Hartsfield airport ended up having the lowest measured rainfall for the month, with only .58 inches, or 16% of normal precipitation. Over half of that rain (.32 in) came during Sunday’s storm. Peachtree DeKalb had 1.15 inches for the month, 29% of normal, with only .11 inches falling Sunday. Athens had .73 inches of rain on Sunday, more than half of its 1.22 inches for the month, 31% of normal. Gainesville ended the month with 1.94 inches of rain, or 51% of its normal June total, and had only .12 inches Sunday. A little further south in Macon, rainfall was more plentiful, with 3.54 inches, 154% of normal for the month.

Here in Lawrenceville, I only recorded a measly .03 inches of rain in Sunday’s storm, but ended up with 2.24 inches of rain, mostly from the storms on Thursday and Friday nights. That’s still about 2/3 of the 3.75 inches of rain you would expect in a normal June. Atlanta is now just over 7 inches short of normal year to date rainfall.

The month will go down as the third driest June recorded in Atlanta - the record was .16 inches back in 1988. It was the fifth driest in Athens, and the ninth driest in Columbus. It was also warmer than normal, averaging around 3 degrees above the average temperature, primarily due to our early June heat wave.

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The June heat wave continued to set records today throughout the east coast. Here are some of the new records:

Atlanta: 98 degrees, with the old record of 97 set in 1995. In addition, this morning’s low temperature of 76 was warmer than the previous high minimum temperature for June 9th of 75 degrees.
Athens: 102 degrees, besting the previous record of 99, set in 1926.
Columbus: 97 ties the record set back in 1986
Macon: 100 ties the previous record from 1954.

Other locations in Georgia, including Augusta, Gainesville, Albany and Savannah also saw highs in the upper 90s, but failed to break any records. Here at my unofficial weather station, I recorded 97 degrees around 2:30 PM. Additional records from around the eastern seaboard:

Raleigh, North Carolina - 99 degrees breaks previous record of 98 set in 1999
Richmond, Virginia - Tied record high of 98 set in 1999.
Atlantic City NJ - 98 degrees beats previous record of 96 set in 1984
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Tied record high of 95 set in 1999
Hartford, Connecticut - Tied record high of 96 set in 1984
Providence, Rhode Island - 97 degrees tops previous record 95 set in 1984
New York LaGuardia Airport high temperature of 99 tops previous record of 95 from 1984
Newark, New Jersey ties old record of 99 set in 1933

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Gwinnett County today revised its watering restrictions to allow hand watering as permitted by state guidelines, but held off on making changes to its policy for watering of professionally installed landscaping.

As you may remember, in mid-February, the county revised the watering restrictions it had put in place in December to allow filling of swimming pools. It also modified its rules regarding watering of professionally installed landscaping to allow watering on 10 days within 30 days of installation if a sign was posted and the homeowner had completed an online course. The county’s guidelines were set to expire on March 31st.

In March, the county commission delegated the authority for managing watering restrictions during the drought to county administrator Jock Connell. He decided today to relax the restrictions on hand watering to those allowed by the state. That means you can use a hose with a hand-activated nozzle to water your plants for up to 25 minutes three days per week, on an odd-even schedule. People with even numbered addresses can water on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, while people with odd numbered addressed can water on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. All watering must be done between midnight and 8 AM. Food gardens can be watered anytime, and the you are not allowed to use your 25 minute window to wash your car.

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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.

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With the old year drawing to a close, it’s time to review some of the significant weather events that affected Georgia during 2007. Here’s this year’s list:

#6 - South Georgia Wildfires

While this wasn’t strictly weather related, the wildfires that burned in south Georgia during late April and most of May destroyed thousands of acres of timber in the Waycross area. Smoke from the fires reached as far north as Atlanta. The fires were eventually brought under control by Tropical Storm Barry.

#5 - January Tornadoes

Tornado season struck early in 2007 as warm weather in early January caused two tornadoes to strike Coweta county in three days on January 5th and 7th. Tornadoes also struck late in the year in South Georgia, when a December 15th storm caused damage in Wilcox, Dodge and Treutlen counties. Elsewhere, a severe tornado damaged central Florida on Groundhog day, and Brooklyn, New York saw its first tornado ever on August 7th.

#4 - Tropical Weather Largely Misses Georgia

The 2007 hurricane season did little to help Georgia’s lack of rainfall. Only Tropical Storm Barry brought precipitation to south Georgia, and Humberto in mid-September was the only hurricane to make landfall in the US this year. It was still a busier than average Atlantic hurricane season, considering that hurricanes Dean and Felix marked the first time that two category 5 storms developed in the Atlantic basin the same year.

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