A few interesting weather notes tonight…

First of all, there is going to be a total eclipse of the moon tomorrow night, the only one until sometime in 2010. As you c an see from the chart below, the event begins shortly before 9PM, reaches totality somewhere around 10:30, and ends shortly after midnight on the 22nd.

Unfortunately, it looks like most folks in Georgia will not be able to view too much, since the forecast is for increasing cloudiness Wednesday evening, as the next storm system moves in. That’s too bad, since this is one that will be visible from beginning to end for much of the eastern part of the country. But, step outside tomorrow night if you have a chance, to see a rare event. You can find more at NASA’s Lunar Eclipse Page.

Georgians hoping for some relief from the drought shouldn’t mind missing the eclipse too much, since the oncoming clouds herald a very good chance for significant precipitation. The latest HPC numbers call for over an inch through Saturday morning, and more rain over the weekend. This is actually down a bit from their morning outlook, which predicted up to three inches of rain through Sunday morning. Accuweather is calling for 2 inches on Thursday or Friday. Any way you slice it, the additional rainfall combined with last Sunday’s rain will increase stream runoff, helping Lake Lanier refill.

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Despite a string of several rainy days this month, it looks like January’s rainfall is going to be less than normal, and that isn’t helping the ongoing drought. As of today, the rainfall gauge at Hartsfield Airport stands at 2.24 inches, or 45% of the just over five inches we would expect in a normal January.

Athens is at 43% of normal, and Gainesville is at 34% of normal of what is normally one of the wettest months of the year. With normal rainfall in December, and the colder temperatures causing less evaporation, drought conditions have loosened slightly, as seen in the latest drought map to the right, but there is concern that real problems could arise again next summer.

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The first three weeks of January have brought a batch of unusual weather to metro Atlanta and North Georgia, seemingly to make fun of early-season forecasts, which called for a warmer than normal and drier than normal Winter.  But, if you look at things more closely, we may not be that far off from the original prediction.

The month started out with a cold blast, getting as low as 16.5 degrees on the third, the lowest temperature of the month. Four days later, the temperature topped 70 degrees on the 7th, the warmest day of a five day streak when highs were above 60, at least ten degrees above normal.  After a few days of more or less normal temperatures, we again saw a plunge over the weekend, when the thermometer refused to budge over 32 degrees on Sunday–that’s the second time this year that’s happened.

Meanwhile, the Atlanta area saw some light snow and sleet last Thursday, and got an inch or so on Saturday, depending on where you were.  Due to the cold weather, some of that snow is still on the ground, at least where I live.  And, the Weather Service as posted a Freezing Rain advisory for much of the state north of Atlanta, including Hall County, for tomorrow morning, as another storm prepares to roll in.  Three wintry precipitation events in a week seem like a lot.

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The data crunchers over at the National Climactic Data Center have come out with their annual look at the weather in the US for 2007. Overall, it was the 10th warmest and the 45th driest year on record. Here is the temperature breakout, by state:

Virtually the entire country saw above normal temperatures. Only Maine was below normal, and Texas, Vermont, and New Hampshire recorded near normal temperatures. It was a much above normal year for temperatures in the mountain west, mid-Atlantic and upper South. Kentucky and Tennessee saw their fourth warmest years on record. The national average temperature of 54.2 degrees was 1.4 degrees above the 20th century mean.

Persistent in the south drought marked 2007 on the precipitation side. North Carolina saw its driest year ever, and it was a top eleven year for the rest of the southern states. California was also extremely dry, recording its fourth driest year ever. Elsewhere, the Plains states saw top ten wettest years, although none set a record.

You can see more details in the full report.

I’ve been watching the weather forecast for the upcoming week with some interest, especially since the low pressure system developing to our west is going to bring plenty of rain to somebody. As the weekend progressed, the models kept bringing the heaviest areas of rain further and further east, and into Georgia. This morning’s precipitation forecast, shown at right, promised some serious drought relief where it is most needed, along the northwestern part of the state. Five inches of rain north of Huntsville would help tremendously with the drought.

The rain was predicted to start Monday night, and continue through Wednesday, and could have brought as much as an inch to metro Atlanta. Now, the rain is supposed to start falling early Monday morning, and while it may continue through Wednesday, the Peachtree City forecast office is predicting only about half an inch total through the period. Accuweather is still calling for slightly over an inch here on the east side of the state, and more in Northwest Georgia.

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