Rain Sleet and Snow coming to Alabama and Georgia March 21-22 2013

A chance for wintery weather in the deep south will be coming in Thursday night into Friday morning. Get your cameras ready haha.

Best area for accumulation will be in the norther areas of Alabama and Georgia. There is likely to be no accumulation except on elevated and grassy areas in the central areas of both states as surface temperatures will be to warm.

In areas it will begin as a rain sleet mix and may change to snow briefly. In others areas it may begin as a sleet snow mix and change to all snow. Best time of this, from west to east will be between 3 AM and 10 Am Friday morning.

Severe Weather : Georgia / Alabama #Derecho Event March 18 2013

Widespread wind damage reports were reported across much of Georgia and Alabama on March 18 2013. There were also reports of Hail varying in size from small to upward of 3 inches.

While this storm system as far as I’ve seen has not been classified as a Derecho, it does qualify as one. A Derecho is classified as a long lived line of storms causing wind damage for more than 240 miles along most of it’s length. Another requirement to meet Derecho qualification is wind speeds of or greater than 57 MPH at points along the path of the storm. I don’t have data to back this up, but from following and reporting on many of the storms spawned by this system, I’d say this qualification was also met.

This system caused widespread wind damage from North Alabama where it began to take on the characteristics of a Derecho and lasting into Southeast Georgia. The distance covered is almost double the 240 mile requirement.

Here’s a Radar loop of the event …

Here’s a couple maps showing wind damage and hail as well as a couple tornado reports.

Georgia Drought Update – Huge Improvement – February 28 2013 #gawx

Heavy rains during February some which were record breaking, have wiped out ‘extreme drought conditions’ in Georgia and the Southeast. However, Pockets of ‘Severe drought’ remain in areas of Central and East Georgia extending into Northeast Florida. So even though the southeast had some good rain, drought still persists, and it won’t take long if dry conditions move in for drought conditions to increase once again throughout the area.

Some areas of Georgia saw record breaking rainfall amounts. One such area was Columbus Georgia where they saw 13.51 inches of precipitation in February, breaking the record of 9.41 inches for the same period. The ‘all time monthly precipitation record’ of 13.62 inches in December of 2009 still stands.

Here at my location, my February rainfall total is 13.29 inches. Here are some other Precipitation Totals for February across Georgia

Albany   -   8.77 inches
Athens   -   7.66 inches
Atlanta  -   9.02 inches
Augusta  -   9.40 inches
Columbus -  13.51 inches
Macon    -  13.75 inches
Savannah -   9.75 inches
Valdosta -   5.39 inches

Georgia / Southeast drought January 1 thru February 26 2013

February Rainfall thru Feb. 26 2013