Macon reaches its second-wettest February, near record rainfall for the month, NWS says

Macon is experiencing its second-wettest February on record, the National Weather Service says.

Another 1.17 inches of rain fell in Macon on Monday, bringing the total for month at 9.68 inches as of Monday night, said Sid King, a meteorologist for the NWS in Peactree City.

Although rain remains in the forecast, it’s unlikely Macon will best its all-time record for February rainfall of 12.87 in 2018, King said.

“There’s some distance between the two, so it would take over 3 inches to break that record at this point, and although there is some rain in the forecast with a couple of systems moving through, it doesn’t seem likely it’s going to break the record by the end of the month,” King said.

Atlanta, Rome and Athens are also near record-breaking rainfall for the month of February, with Rome close to surpassing its all-time of record of 11.22 inches in 1961, King said. Late Monday, total rainfall for Rome this month was 11.06 inches.

“All of them are second or third wettest February on record, but none of them have surpassed it yet,” King said.

Meanwhile, a flood warning for the Ocmulgee River near Macon remains in effect through Saturday evening, with river at 17.3 feet and rising as of early Tuesday. Flood stage is at 18 feet.

“A lot of that is due to a lot of the rainfall that we had in recent days,” King said. “With as much rain as we’ve had over the last few weeks, soils have remained wet. So anytime we get any rain, there’s a lot of runoff that goes into the rivers. So they respond very quickly to any additional rainfall.”

The Ocmulgee River was expected to rise above flood stage by Tuesday night and reach 21.2 feet by Thursday afternoon, the NWS says. The river is expected to fall below flood stage by Saturday afternoon.

Most of Amerson River Park has been reopened. However, the boat ramps and the unpaved trails around the pond and the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail remain closed Wednesday because of the river level.

This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 10:30 AM.