9-12-19

(Cleveland)- With Georgia experiencing at least  73 days of temperatures above 90 degrees this year that’s makes for a long hot summer.  

WRWH Weather Reporter Bill Kinsland has been digging through summer weather stats and found out the following;  first Monday  and Wednesday’s high temperatures in Cleveland broke records. The  94 on Monday set a new record, breaking the old record of 91 set in 2016.  Wednesday’s high in Cleveland of 92 broke a previous record high was 91 set in 2002.  

Sautee’s high temp of 85 Wednesday afternoon broke previous record of 84 set in 2016!   

Helen’s high temp of 94 Wednesday also broke previous record of 93 set in 1962 (57 years ago!)

-As for rainfall numbers….White County has had no significant rainfall in two weeks…since August 27th, except for 0.02 inch rainfall at Sautee on September 3rd.

According to Bill this continues a slow downward trend in average rainfall totals in White County which began at the end of June. Monthly rainfall totals at Cleveland and Sautee were below normal for July and August. Helen alone has bucked the trend with above-average rainfall totals for both months.

But he says keep in mind that the first 6 months of this year were very wet with some near-record rainfalls for all stations.

As of Monday the county’s year-to-date average rainfall was 56.22 inches that is 10.61 inches above normal.  

As you can imagine the diminished rainfall has been reflected in downward trends of both surface and ground water levels with, as of Monday, Lake Lanier 1.85 feet below normal pool of 1071 feet.  Likewise, the Chattahoochee River level at Duncan Bridge (“Leaf”) was 1.51 ft which is -0.82 ft below normal.   The Chattahoochee River level at Helen was down .61 ft below normal.