Thursday March 28th, 2024 6:46PM

State Climatologist: Humid days ahead

By Austin Eller News Director

Georgia's State Climatologist said he believes hot, humid days await Georgians as the summer heat picks up.

Bill Murphey, state climatologist and chief meteorologist for the Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, told WDUN he was not expecting a lot of triple-digit days, but Georgia may see some throughout the summer.

"The thing is though, with the above-average tropical activity forecasted, and the gulf staying pretty open, the cloud cover is going to help keep things down a little bit, as far as temperature goes," Murphey said. "The bad news is the humidity is really going to crank up. We're going to be back in the soup as they say in the Southeast."

Murphey said the state had an early start to the summer heat, due to the heat wave that moved across the southeast in mid-June. The heat dried out soil across the state, as well as crops.

"We've had some reports of non-irrigated cornfields suffering the worst," Murphey said. "Pastures and grasslands took a big hit ... We've had tobacco conditions suffer from extreme heat and lack of moisture as well. Cotton and peanuts were reported wilting in parts of the state too."

Large portions of the state were considered to be in a moderate drought as of Thursday. The U.S. Drought Monitor showed that 51.53% of the state was experiencing a moderate drought, while 38.61% of the state was considered abnormally dry. In northeast Georgia, much of Banks, Barrow, Dawson, Franklin, Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson and Lumpkin counties were experiencing a moderate drought.

"We've still got that D2 severe drought area down near Savannah," Murphey said. "That's been hanging on for several weeks now."

A lack of rainfall in the region is also having an impact on drought conditions. Murphey said the Gainesville area in particular has seen below-average rainfall in recent weeks.

"Nearly three inches below normal for the last 30 days, over three and a half inches below normal for the past 60 days, for the past 90 days, over four inches of rain below normal," Murphey said. "Those add up."

 

  • Associated Categories: Homepage, Local/State News
  • Associated Tags: weather, climate, summer, state climatologist, Georgia Climatologist
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