It’s a real weather whiplash: Metro Atlanta temperatures are flirting with record highs over the next couple of days, just a week after North Georgia froze over.
Daily highs in the city will tease the 80-degree mark through Friday. That is well above the average 63-degree peak temp for this time of year, and there is a 70% chance that decades-old records could be tied or broken, according to the National Weather Service.
“It’s going to feel a lot more like early fall,” Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said.
And the warm trend likely will stay with us at least through Thanksgiving.
By 1 p.m. Wednesday, the warmup brought temps to 75 degrees at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — still a few degrees short of the 80-degree record set in 1942.
Thursday has the best chance to break the record, with a projected high of 80 degrees in the city, according to Monahan. The NWS predicts a 79-degree high, which would still tie with the highest temp set in 1979.
Friday could also have a shot at matching the 77-degree record set in 2011.
Temperature recordkeeping in Atlanta dates to 1878.
The unusually warm weather pattern is brought to us thanks to the “cold part of the jet stream … (staying) way back to the north,” Monahan added. “It’s going to stay there for the next week and a half or so, and we’ve got that warm bubble of air across the Southeast.”
The Weather Service says there is a 60%-70% chance we will see above-average temperatures through Nov. 28, the day after Thanksgiving. Further out, there’s still a 40%-50% chance of unusually warm weather through Dec. 2.
The unseasonable heat might feel jarring after recent snow flurries, but it is no surprise. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fall weather outlook predicted overall higher-than-average temperatures across the Southeast through November.
After some showers that rolled across North Georgia early Wednesday, there is not much rain in the forecast. The climate outlook also predicted a below-average amount of rain this season, and — sure enough — we’ve not seen much of it. Drought conditions have remained or even worsened across the state and fire dangers have increased thanks to the abundance of dry foliage.
The next best chance for rain — just 40% — comes Saturday, though some locations could see a few showers Friday. The Weather Service cautions that “improvements to the ongoing drought situation are unlikely as a result.”
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