South Georgia’s warming up

Published 3:00 am Monday, May 8, 2017

VALDOSTA — A brief dip in temperatures during the weekend following a cold front with rain won’t last, forecasters said.

Valdosta’s daytime high is expected to hit 90 degrees Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service’s forecast.

One of the reasons for the warm-up is a dip in the jet stream, said Randy Adkins, a meteorologist with the private forecasting firm AccuWeather.

“As the jet stream pulls back north, in comes a rush of warmer, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and tropics,” he said.

At this time of year, cold fronts have trouble holding together this far south, said Tim Barry, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Tallahassee, Fla., office.

“A high-pressure system should be building up over the area,” he said.

Rain isn’t likely until another cold front tries to make its way through South Georgia Friday, both forecasters said, and even then the weather service only projects a 20 percent chance of rain Friday and a 30 percent chance Saturday.

Barry said in the summer, South Georgia depends more on sea breeze conditions — the temperature differential between air over land and air blown in from the oceans — for rain than cold fronts.

Neither Barry nor Adkins saw much of a chance of severe weather during the week.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.