By Clint Thompson
The 2025 calendar year was warmer than normal for most of the Southeast region, according to Pam Knox, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension agricultural climatologist.
Knox noted the weather conditions in the UGA Climate Blog.
“There are obviously variations across the state. I would say almost the entire state, with the exception of areas right around Macon, were warmer than usual,” Knox said. “Macon had a lot of rain, and that probably contributed to it. When you have rain, then you have clouds, and that keeps the daytime temperatures cooler. It looks to me like most of the stations in the state are running around one or two degrees above normal for 2025 with the exception of a few places where it was a little cooler than normal. You’ve got to keep in mind that normal, which is 1991 to 2020, is above the long-term average. Even if we’re below normal, we’re still above the long-term average.
“I don’t know that we’re going to be in the top 10 warmest years, but I think the top 20 warmest; definitely way above the long-term average.”
Late-Season Frost?
Knox and other industry specialists have noted that chill hours are ahead of normal this year compared to previous seasons. But a switch from La Niña to neutral conditions brings an increased chance of a late-season frost, which could impact commodities like peaches, blueberries and watermelons.
“To me, the biggest question going into the blooming season for the fruit farmers is whether or not we get warm for long enough; if they’ve had enough chill hours and they come out of dormancy in bloom and swing back to another cold period, which can happen in neutral conditions. I do have some concerns about whether that might happen,” Knox said.
“There are some signs that there’s going to be a stratospheric warming, and usually it takes about a month for us to see impacts here in the Southeast after one of those is identified. That means in about a month from now, we could go into a colder spell, but we don’t really know where the coldest air is going to go. It could go to Europe. It could go farther west, or it could come here. That’s just something we’ll have to watch.”