It looks like Old Man Winter is going to take one more shot at Georgia over the next few days, and that could be bad news for gardeners and farmers across the state for a second year in a row. The Weather Service is calling for low temperatures in Lawrenceville of 36 degrees on Sunday night and Tuesday night, and 34 degrees Monday night. Across the state, lows are expected to be in the upper 30s Monday morning, and 31 in Atlanta, 32 in Athens, and 30 in Macon on Tuesday morning.

Accuweather.com is calling for lows of 34 on Sunday night, 30 Monday night and 39 Tuesday Night, while Weather.com says it will be 36 Sunday night, 31 on Monday and 33 on Tuesday.  In comparison, temperatures dropped to 28 degrees the nights of April 6 and 7, 2007, the infamous Easter Freeze that caused widespread damage to spring flowers and crops.

My guess is that the damage won’t be as bad as what we saw last year– it looks like it will be a little warmer– but I wouldn’t suggest you plant any annuals this weekend.  You should also bring in any houseplants or container plants you’ve set outside until at least Wednesday. If the worst does happen, Walter Reeves has a good article on coping with freeze damage.

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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.

Last week, much of the eastern part of the country shivered under conditions that brought below freezing weather to Florida, and the coldest weather in three years to Atlanta.  This week, things have turned around, and extremely warm temperatures are the rule along the Ohio River valley.  Take a look at the temperatures recorded around 10 PM this evening:

For January 7th, that’s extremely warm.  For example, at 9:50 PM, it was 63 in Cincinnati (about 10 degrees warmer than in Atlanta). Their normal high for this time of year is 38 degrees; yesterday was 33 degrees above normal, with a low temperature only dropping to 58. In New York, it’s currently 59, with temperatures yesterday running 22 degrees above normal. In general, the warm temperatures of the last two days have wiped out the effects of the cold spell, and for the month so far, temperatures east of the Mississippi are running one to two degrees above normal.

You can see that west of the warm weather, temperatures are much colder.  This is a classic situation for thunderstorms and tornadoes. There are tornado watches in effect for northern Illinois, northern Ohio, and much of Michigan, as well as for much of Missouri.  The line of storms is caused by the same system that wreaked so much havoc on Northern California and Nevada earlier this week. The storms will reach the Atlanta area Tuesday evening, and after a few days of welcome rain, we should be back to more normal temperatures, at least for a while.

This morning’s low temperature of 16.5 degrees in Lawrenceville, Georgia was the coldest I’ve recorded since January 24th, 2005, when the thermometer dropped to 14.6. It’s not a record for the day - that honor is held by 1928, where the temperature dropped to nine degrees in Atlanta.

The coldest weather of the 2007-2008 winter season spread throughout Georgia and Florida, with temperatures (as of 7 AM) including:

Albany, GA - 22
Athens, GA - 17
Atlanta, GA - 15
Brunswick, GA - 27
Destin, FL - 26
Gainesville, FL - 22
Macon, GA - 20
Naples, FL - 34
Orlando, FL - 31
Pensacola, FL - 23
Savannah, GA - 25
Tampa, FL - 29
Valdosta, GA - 24

Yesterday, the temperature topped out at 31.2 degrees here in Lawrenceville, and 30 in Atlanta, which is about 22 degrees below normal. As best I can tell, the last time the high temperature didn’t break the freezing mark was on January 29th, 2005, when we had a high temperature of 31.3. Wind chill readings yesterday didn’t help either, with readings in the single digits.

This week’s weather may turn out to be the coldest of the year. Temperatures will begin to moderate today, and we could see highs around 40 today, near 50 on Friday and in the 60s for the weekend, and into next week. Look for another cold night tonight though, with lows around 20.

As much of the southeast US enjoys record setting temperatures in December, maybe it’s only appropriate that a late subtropical storm make an appearance in the Caribbean Sea.  Subtropical Storm Olga is being tracked by the National Hurricane Center, and is making landfall over the Dominican Republic:

Don’t expect any drought relief from Olga, though.  Although she could drop up to a foot of rain over Santo Domingo, by Wednesday afternoon the storm will have become a tropical depression, and the remnant low will be over the Yucatan peninsula by the weekend.

Meanwhile, metro Atlanta is enjoying its third straight day of record warmth.  With the temperature already at 75 degrees, we’ve broken the old record for December 11th of 73, set back in 1985.  Yesterday’s high of 77 degrees broke the old record of 74, which was set in 1972, and Sunday’s high of 76 topped the previous record of 71 degrees in 1978.

Look for more warm temperatures through Thursday, when the high pressure system holding off the storms to the north will start to break down and bring in at least some rain.  By the weekend, it will feel more like winter, with highs in the upper 40s to low 50s.