Posted by wxii12.com blogs at 10/16/2007 8:41 PM
I have gotten lots of questions over the last few months about the heat and about the lack of rain. I hope this will help bring you up to date.
This year brought us the hottest August on record. The average temperature was 83.2 degrees. Here’s the rest of the top 5:
80.0 1975
79.7 1988
79.4 2006
79.4 1995
It also brought us one of the driest Augusts on record coming in at number 4. Here is the complete list:
.71″ 1972
1.13″ 1979
1.19″ 1962
1.36″ 2007
1.40″ 1932Now the numbers are in for September and it was one of the warmest on record. At number 3, tied with 2005 with an average high temperature of 73.9 degrees. The top 5 warmest Septembers follows:
74.6 1933
74.4 1930
73.9 2007
73.9 2005
73.5 1954
As for rainfall in September, it was not the driest, but did measure in at .88″ (or 3.42″ below normal). This along with several months of below normal rainfall dating back to May has put us in a drought in the Triad.
The long range outlook through the winter months does not bode well for getting out of this drought. Typically, October and November are our driest months. (Oct. avg. 2.96″ and Nov. avg. 2.82″– the driest month on average) Add to that a developing La Nina (cooling of the equatorial waters in the Pacific Ocean) and this leaves a long range forecaster with little hope for improvement. La Nina typically brings warm, dry conditions to the deep south and cool, wet conditions to the Pacific Northwest. This type of pattern would leave us dry; and for all of you snow lovers… perhaps a little saddened.
Is this the driest we have ever been in a year? Well, we are sitting at 20.87″ of rain at Piedmont Triad International Airport as of this date. That’s about 15″ below normal to date. The driest year ever occurred in 1941 when 27.74″ of rain was measured. (Records have been kept at the airport since 1928.) It is possible that we could beat that. The only way we won’t is to see about 2-3″ of rain a month between now and the end of the year.
It’s not like we haven’t seen dry years before. You may remember 1986 (29.67″), or 2001 (29.67″) or maybe 2005 (33.66″). Our normal rainfall for a year at PTIA is 43.14″
As always, we take the good with the bad when it comes to weather. And right now, we as good citizens need to heed the warnings of water shortages and do what we can to help with this drought crisis. You can find out more on our drought and what you can do to help here on our website.
Lanie
