Update: I apparently posted this too early, as the weather service came out with new numbers for the high temperature. The official high for Atlanta reached 104 degrees at 5:21 PM, making Wednesday the warmest day recorded since July 17th, 1980, and marking the third-warmest day ever recorded in the city, and the all-time high for August.

The day’s record also means Atlanta has tied the 1980 record for maximum number of days above 100 degrees with nine. How’s that for setting a bunch of records in one day?

Back to the original post…

Atlanta’s official temperature gauge at Hartsfield-Jackson airport recorded another record high today, with 102 degrees, breaking the previous 1983 record of 100. Here in Lawrenceville, the high reached 101. Also this morning, Atlanta recorded another ‘high-minimum’ temperature of 79 – meaning that the low temperature for August 22nd was the highest it had ever been for this date.

The good news is that today is probably the last of the 100 degree days for the season, and a change in the weather pattern is on the way, albeit slowly at first.

The weather we’ve had over the past two weeks has been controlled by a strong high pressure system, both at the surface and aloft. Since high pressure causes air be heavier than air of lower pressure, it acts to reduce air movement, and keeps storms away. Even Hurricanes Dean and Erin were affected by this. Note how the remnants of Erin moved way north to Michigan and Ohio before turning back eastward. And, a silver lining of the ridge is that it has also kept higher humidity away, keeping the heat from becoming unbearable.

Anyway, the high pressure ridge is ever so slowly moving to the west, and after tomorrow, we should start to see cooler temperatures and an increased chance of sorely needed rainfall. Highs next week should still be warmer than normal, but only in the low 90s, with a chance of thundershowers most days. The chance of rain should be even stronger by this time next week. Accuweather is forecasting rain every day from September 1st through 4th, although this is pretty far out.

At this point, though, I’m more worried about the drought than the heat. You know it’s dry when even the weeds are dying back.

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The heat wave continues in Georgia, with no early end in sight. Friday, August 10th, the thermometer rose again to 103 degrees at 5:29 PM, breaking the previous record for the day of 97 degrees, set in 194. Here in Lawrenceville, the temperature broke 100, although it wasn’t quite as hot as yesterday (like someone would notice).

The three day string of 100 plus degree temperatures is the first time since July 27-29, 1993 that Atlanta has been over 100 for so long. The 103 degree temperature recorded Thursday and Friday is the warmest it’s been since 1980, when the temperature in Atlanta hit an all-time record high of 105 degrees on July 17th, 1980—my third week in Georgia.

The Weather Service has issued another heat advisory for Saturday. Temperatures are likely to stay extremely hot through the middle of next week, when we get a cool spell, with highs only reaching the low 90s.

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The heat wave in Atlanta continues. Today’s high temperature of 103 degrees recorded at 12:46 PM at Hartsfield-Jackson airport beat the previous record of 101, set back in 1980. Meanwhile, here in Lawrenceville, the temperature on Thursday also crossed the century mark, to 101.5 degrees, the highest temperature I’ve recorded since I started keeping records in 2002. It could be worse…you could be playing at the PGA Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where it’s currently 97 degrees with a heat index of 105, and expected to stay very warm.

Speaking of records, Brooklyn, New York recorded its first-ever tornado on Wednesday morning—one of three to hit New York City since recordkeeping began. The F2 storm, along with the associated torrential rainfall ground the NYC morning commute to a halt, flooding subways and stalling buses. Central Park recorded 2.5 inches of rain, while 3.47 inches of rain fell at Kennedy Airport in Queens.

With all the heat and drought in Georgia, we could certainly use some of the rain that fell on New York yesterday, and the Weather Service has come through with its updated hurricane forecast. Similar to last week’s predictions by Dr. Gray, the Weather Service is still calling for a stronger than normal season, but has dropped the number of storms by one from its original forecast.

The prediction now is for 13-16 named storms, instead of 13-17, and 7-9 hurricanes, rather than 7-10. The number of predicted intense hurricanes remains at 3. Overall, there’s an 85 percent chance of an above normal season in 2007. Forecasters say that they are more confident of their prediction now because of a favorable climate leading to storm development.

As the above chart shows, the peak of the tropical season isn’t until after Labor Day. Typically, there are one or two storms during June and July, and things don’t really start to pick up until mid-August.

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This year’s heat wave in North Georgia is one for the record books. Wednesday’s high of 100 degrees in Atlanta was the first time the temperature broke 100 degrees since August 18th, 2000, when the thermometer reached 101. Wednesday morning also saw a record all time high minimum temperature of 82 degrees at Hartsfield Airport — one degree higher than the previous record, set in 1879 and 1980.

Wednesday’s high of 99 degrees set a record high for August 8th in Gainesville, GA. In Athens, Tuesday’s high of 101 tied a record set in 1980, and Wednesday’s high of 102 broke the previous record of 101, also set in 1980. Macon’s high of 102 on Wednesday also broke the 1980 record set there.

This week also saw another record set for Atlanta — the driest year-to-date ever recorded. With only 17.24 inches of rain as of August 5th, this beats the previous record of 17.25 inches as of that date, set back in 1914. While other areas of the state are also dry, none are in the top five driest years to date. The map to the right shows the latest drought areas in Georgia, as of August 7th.

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You’ve undoubtedly heard about the extreme heat in much of the western part of the United States. Here are some high temperature readings from Friday, July 6th:

Bullhead City, Arizona 118 degrees
Phoenix, Arizona 113 (Not a record)
Tucson, Arizona 107 (Not a record)
Boise Idaho 105 (new record, breaking previous 101 degrees in 1985)
Bozeman, Montana 106 (Record)
Billings, Montana 104 (Record)
Glasgow, Montana 102 (Not a record high)
Missoula, Montana 107 (Record)
Elko Nevada 104 (Breaking old high temperature record of 102, set in 1913)
Las Vegas, Nevada 115 (Ties record set in 1989; with a high of 113 predicted for 7/7/07, I wonder if the gamblers who decided to visit Las Vegas on the luckiest day of the century are really feeling lucky?)
Reno, Nevada 99 (Not a record)
Ontario, Oregon 106 (Records set on the 5th and the 6th)
Salt Lake City, Utah 103 (Breaks record of 102 degrees in 1973)
Hanford, Washington 102 (Not a record)

Typically this time of year, the national daily high temperature is set in Death Valley California, and so it was again yesterday, with 129 degrees, 12 degrees above normal.

While the excessive daytime temperatures are in many cases warmer than the Atlanta area has ever seen, keep in mind that they are accompanied by extremely low humidity. For example at the time that Las Vegas reached 115 degrees yesterday, the dewpoint was 28 degrees, and the relative humidity was 5%.

Additional records for the highest low temperature are being broken as well. In St. George, Utah yesterday, the low got down to 92 degrees, breaking the all time low minimum temperature record set back in 1970.

Next week’s weather could get interesting, as the heat wave moves east. Because of the persistent low pressure system dumping rain on the southern plains, the extreme temperatures won’t reach Atlanta. But, high temperatures in the upper 90s are likely to make New York City miserable early next week. High temperatures of 98 in Boston, 96 in Chicago, and 98 in Washington, DC are going to affect a lot more people than the records being set out west. Look for the weather to dominate the headlines again next week.

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