By Clint Thompson
A hot month of May is expected to stay that way as the weather outlook calendar turns to June.
Pam Knox, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension agricultural climatologist, provided a weather outlook for what temperatures should feel like over the next week.
“The (upcoming) forecast continues to show us in above normal temperatures across all of the south part United States. It does put us in slightly above normal chances for wetter conditions. That’s good, I guess,” Knox said. “I don’t see any break in the warm conditions anytime soon.”
According to the UGA Weather Network, the average daily high temperature in Tifton, Georgia from May 1 to May 24 was 86 degree Fahrenheit (F). That is compared to 82F in 2021 and 2020. The high temperatures combined with an extended drought created unpredictable growing conditions for specialty crop producers.
The region finally received some rainfall this week. Will it continue? La Niña’s sustainability makes it seem unlikely.
“Typically, a La Niña summer, a summer after a La Niña, is the time when we’re more likely to get drought. It really depends on the tropics. If the tropics are active and they send a lot of storms over the Southeast, it won’t be an issue. But if they’re active and send all the storms west of Texas, I’m sure the Texas people will be happy, but we’ll be high and dry. That’s more likely to be the case this year,” Knox said. “La Niña has been surprisingly strong for this time of year. Usually by now it’s dying away. Right now, it’s about as strong as it has been. They think it’s going to last through the summer and probably continue into next year. That’s pretty rare to have it go for that long. It makes it harder to predict because we don’t have very many analogs.”
