I thought our October weather was absolutely amazing! Moderate temperatures and below-average rainfall for most of the month, except when we had that visit from Hurricane Delta that brought 4-6 inches of rain across north Georgia.
I had so many people ask me why we had a tropical system hit the Gulf Coast and Georgia in October. October is still very much hurricane season and the area they are most likely to form in October is the Gulf of Mexico. This past September and October we had La Nina develop. I won’t go into much detail about La Nina now, but the bottom line is, La Nina did not allow any wind shear to occur in the atmosphere that would have weakened Delta. It charged through Louisiana with a vengeance and then was supposed to move toward Ohio and weaken.
Delta did not follow the prediction and instead moved toward Georgia like a rocket. Its outer band prompting a tornado watch for the metro area and a flash flood watch for the mountains. It was a Saturday night and I was in Severe Weather Center 2 when I saw the signature of our first tornado. It happed to be on during a certain football game! We did most of our warning and tracking on our web page. When it was all said and done by 11:30 pm, we had seven confirmed tornadoes and 4.6 inches of rain in Atlanta.
From Lake Lanier to the mountains, we saw 4-8 inches of tropical rain with extensive flooding in many areas. It was quite a night but and we are so happy no one was hurt.
Onward we go into November and the Climate Prediction Center continues its predictions of a warmer and drier November than the 30-year average. We begin the month with an average high temperature of 68 degrees and an average low of 48. By November 15th, the average high and low are 65 and 45. By the last day of the month, the average high is 59 and the average low is 41. The average rainfall for the month is 3.9 inches. However, as I mentioned earlier, we have a La Nina now and temperatures are expected to be well above average with a drier than average month.
The first freeze dates have been as early as October 11th with the latest being November 13. The full “Beaver Moon,” according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, will be the morning of the 30th.
Hope you all have a wonderful month and wonderful Thanksgiving, despite all that’s going on.