A powerful low pressure system is making its way across the Southeast US today, bringing rain and flooding to parts of Georgia and Alabama, and rare snow to Houston and New Orleans.  Here’s a satellite picture of the storm taken about 11:15 this morning:

It’s the first time there’s been snow in Houston or New Orleans since Christmas Eve, 2004. About an inch of snow fell in New Orleans, although three inches fell in Baton Rough and five inches was reported north of Lake Pontchartrain. Parts of Mississippi reported between two and four inches of snowfall.

Metro Atlanta received more rain this morning, mostly on the order of 2/3 of an inch. However there is still a chance for additional precipitation as the upper low moves just north of Atlanta later today.

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In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, columnist Bret Stephens writes about global warming, and the fact that since it was first discovered 20 years ago, much of what was said has been discredited.

Recent evidence of a cooling pattern, including cooler sea surface temperatures, expanding Antarctic sea ice and colder North American winters has caused some global warming advocates to postulate that we are in a temporary break from the warming, and that it will resume after 2020. But, as Stephens notes,

If even slight global cooling remains evidence of global warming, what isn’t evidence of global warming? What we have here is a nonfalsifiable hypothesis, logically indistinguishable from claims for the existence of God. This doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist, or that global warming isn’t happening. It does mean it isn’t science.

Stephens then goes on to discuss several theories as to why the AGW crowd continues to believe as it does. Well worth a read.

This morning’s low of 62 degrees in Atlanta (and 58 degrees in my more suburban location here in Lawrenceville) was one of the lowest seen for a July morning in quite a while. It looks like the last time Atlanta saw a temperature that low in July was back on July 12, 1999. It was the lowest July reading I’ve recorded since I got my weather station back in 2002.

Tomorrow looks like a possible record breaker, especially in Macon, where the record low is 58 degrees, set in 1937, and a low of 56 is predicted. For Atlanta, there’s still a possibility, although the low record of 58 degrees is still three degrees above 1961’s record low for July 2. Enjoy it while you can, because more typical July weather comes back just in time for the Independence Day weekend.

Meanwhile the first real sign of possible tropical activity in the Atlantic basin is being tracked by the National Hurricane Center. There’s a low pressure system off the coast of Africa that is moving west, and may gain strength over the next few days. In the Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Boris continues its westerly track into nowhere, and is not likely to bother anything before it dies out this weekend.

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Some folks in North Georgia got an unusual late March sight: snow flurries fell briefly this afternoon.  Although it was 45 degrees outside, much colder air aloft combined with lower pressure caused by a short wave passing through squeezed out just enough moisture for the flakes, which melted on contact with the ground. Temperatures today are 20 degrees cooler than normal, and the northern two thirds of the state will see a freeze tonight.  If you succumbed to the spring planting urge over the weekend, either bring your plants in, or at least cover them over.

Tonight’s freeze won’t be anywhere near as bad as the Easter Freeze of 2007. though.  Not only is it likely to be a bit warmer than the 28 degrees recorded last April, but not as many plants have started to bloom. A freeze in late March isn’t too unusual.  For metro Atlanta, the typical last frost occurs sometime between April 1st and April 15th.

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You know that it’s been an unusual January when Atlanta records more snowfall than New York City. With no snow forecast for the last day of the month in either  city, Atlanta has recorded 1.4 inches of snow for the month, with most of that coming on the 19th. On the other hand, New York City recorded a trace of snow on the 27th, its only white stuff for the month.

According to an article in the New York Sun,  it’s the first time in 75 years that no measurable snow has fallen in NYC in January.  The article also quotes Weather Service officials as saying that the lack of snow in the Big Apple is due more to storm patterns tracking inland than due to global warming.

Hat tip to the Drudge Report for noticing this.

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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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