2007 Georgia Weather Year in Review
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.
# 3 - Record August Temperatures
August, 2007 saw the warmest summertime temperatures since 1980 in north Georgia. Atlanta had nine days when the thermometer broke 100 degrees, and the 90 degree mark was topped for the first 26 days of the month. The 104 degrees recorded on August 24th was the warmest day since July 17th, 1980. All in all, the month ended up being the warmest August ever recorded in Georgia. Other states experiencing record warm Augusts include Alabama, Florida, both Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Utah.
#2 - The Easter Freeze
An early spring warmup was rudely interrupted the first weekend in April, when temperatures dropped to 28 degrees on April 7th in Atlanta, a record low for the day. In Asheville, NC, temperatures dropped to 20 degrees. The cold weather brought an end to the early spring blooming season in North Georgia, and made for a rather untypical Masters tournament in Augusta.
#1 - The Drought
Rainfall, or the lack of it was not only the biggest weather story of the year, it was probably the biggest news story overall. Less than normal rainfall in 2006 and in Winter 2007 set the stage, and dry weather in the spring, including the driest May ever, caused extreme drought conditions by June for much of North and West Georgia. Despite relatively normal rainfall in June and July, the record breaking August heat and lack of rainfall caused Georgia to declare a total outdoor watering ban in late September.
Normal December precipitation, including over 2 1/2 inches of rain on December 28th-30th kept Atlanta from recording its driest year ever, leaving 1954 as the record holder by a scant .05 inches. La Nina conditions that are expected to last until spring, and tend to cause less than normal precipitation in the Southeast mean that the drought is likely to continue, and that the lack of rainfall could be a top story again in 2008.
Sphere: Related Content
January 10th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Felt like there was a record number of days in December 2007 where the temperature was over 70. Was there?
And it feels like there’s already been a record number of days over 60 in Jan. 2008.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I looked back a bit in history to determine if we had a record number of 70+ degree days in December, at least for Atlanta Hartsfield Airport. In 2007, it was 70 or higher on 6 days, from the 8th through the 13th. That was matched by 2001, where it broke 70 on the 4th through the 8th, and again on the 14th.
But, in 1998, the first eight days of the month all were above 70 degrees, so that beats 2007. I didn’t check back any further to see if there was a longer stretch than eight, though. For the record, the rest of the years between 1999 and 2006 had either one or no days above 70.
So far in January, 2008 we’ve had five days above 60, counting today. You need go back no further than 2007 to beat that. It was above 60 on New Year’s Day, the 4th through the 8th, the 12th through the 15th, and the 27th, for a total of 11 days, so we have a ways to go yet to beat last year’s January warmth.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
what was January’s temperature tellme now.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
whats the states nickname?
March 18th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
For Atlanta, January 2008’s average temperature was 42.2 degrees, half a degree less than normal. Statewide, the average temperature was 45.1 degrees, the 38th warmest since 1895.
And the state’s nickname — The Peach State.