Summer 2010 a hot time in Ga.

With temperatures expected to drop into the 50s Sunday morning, fall will definitely be in the air.

Some say it can’t come too soon after one of the hottest summers recorded in Georgia.

Autumn doesn’t officially begin until Sept. 23, but those who study weather and climate consider June, July and August the climatological summer season.

When considering average temperatures, those three months made for the warmest summer ever recorded in Savannah, Athens, Columbus and Alma. Meanwhile, the three-month span launched Macon, Augusta, Brunswick and Atlanta into the top three hottest summers.

For Macon, it wasn’t so much the dog days of August, but the nights. The Middle Georgia Regional Airport recorded the warmest average low temperature in the 62 years records have been kept.

The mercury never hit 100 degrees in August, but Macon reached the century mark three times in July and once in June on the 15th. Never once did Middle Georgia break a daily record high this season.

“We were closer to records with the low temperatures than the highs,” said Pam Knox, assistant state climatologist. “It’s really those nighttime temperatures that are driving those conditions this year.”

The summer of 2007 was another hot one, but in a different way.

Knox said a string of 100-plus days three years ago balanced out with cooler nights. Drought conditions fueled that year’s heat, so this summer’s rainfall saved the midstate from even higher temperatures.

At the same time, it was the higher humidity levels that made it uncomfortably muggy and prevented overnight cooling.

Macon set a daily rainfall record of 4.47 inches July 14. The rain gauge at the airport totaled 16.27 inches of rain during the three summer months, which was 4.62 inches above average summer rainfall.

Things began to dry out a little in August with Macon’s 3.57 inches of rain, falling .22 inches short of normal precipitation.

The city remains about an inch and a half above normal rainfall for this year, so far.

Without the rain, daytime highs would have been hotter, weather officials said.

Knox cautions against concluding this summer’s above-average heat is due to global warming.

“My husband has a saying, ‘Once is a fluke and twice is a trend,’’’ she said. “But with an individual year, you cannot make conclusions.”

To accurately reflect climate patterns, scientists must take into account changes in the landscape. Urban development in the past six decades around airport recording stations will affect temperatures just as city “heat islands” bring higher temperatures than in the country, Knox said.

“You’d like to think the surface is constant,” Knox said. “But with people, there will always be change.”

To contact writer Liz Fabian, call 744-4303.