Record-breaking summer heat has Georgia on path toward second-warmest year on record
Record-breaking high temperatures in August kept Georgia on pace for what may be shaping up to be the state’s second-warmest year on record. And above-average temperatures are expected through the fall.
A recent monthly report from the Office of the State Climatologist noted that August was the seventh-warmest August on record, dating back to 1895.
The report further mentioned that the statewide average temperature for August was 81.7 degrees, 2.7 degrees above average.
The average temperature statewide for the first eight months this year was 67.8 degrees, 2.8 degrees above average, marking the second-warmest eight-month span to start a year on record. That doesn’t mean 2023 will be the second-warmest ever, but thus far it is.
The warmest average temperature on record for the January-to-August period came in 2017, when the average temperature was 67.9 degrees.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center has forecast above-normal temperatures and rainfall for September, October and November.
Georgia climatologists also noted in their August report that Macon (104 degrees) and Columbus (102 degrees) broke record high temperatures on Aug. 26.
Their monthly report further mentioned Hurricane Idalia’s impact on southeastern Georgia, where the Baxley area in Appling County recorded 8.19 inches of rainfall and St. Simons Island, on the coast, clocked a record wind gust of 67 mph.