In 2024, there was pendulum-swinging between record-reaching rains and nearly month-long dry spells this year throughout the state, especially during the fall. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Atlantans braved huge storms and moderate droughts throughout 2024, breaking records for rain and cycles of drought.
At the end of the year, state climatologist Bill Murphey said that looking back, there are two words he’d use to describe this year in weather — “feast and famine.”
He said there was pendulum-swinging between record-reaching rains and nearly month-long dry spells this year throughout the state, especially during the fall.
“It was almost perfectly on a monthly basis,” the climatologist said.
That was particularly true during Hurricane Helene. Atlanta had its highest 48-hour rain record as Hurricane Helene rolled through Georgia. While the metro Atlanta area missed the worst of Helene, equipment at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport locked on a record-breaking 11.2 inches of rain that 48-hour period, which caused urban flash floods.
That beat the previous record by over 1.5 inches, which was set back in 1886. This places Helene somewhere between a 1-in-200-year and a 1-in-500-year storm, according to Murphey.
But Murphey said not long after Helene, Georgia flip-flopped from a rainy record to a dry one, experiencing its longest-ever period without rain at 41 days. Through the fall, many counties across the state slipped into moderate droughts before rain came to douse it out. Murphey said this cycle was rinsed and repeated throughout the season.
But even with a few spells of drought throughout the year, the state still broke records for its rain.
According to the National Weather Service (NSW) regional office in Atlanta, the total number of flash flood warnings in 2024 put Georgia in the top five years since 1985, tying with 2020.
Aside from the southeast, which NWS said receives more rainfall from tropical systems in a thread on the social media website X, the metro Atlanta region was more prone to flooding “due to increased runoff in the urban jungle.”
It was also a record-breaking year for heat. NWS said Atlanta had its warmest year on record, with the average temperature at 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 3.2 degrees from the normal average temperature of 63 degrees. In Columbus, it was the 4th warmest year on record and 9th warmest in Athens.
This winter’s weather
Murphey said that Georgia’s winter weather is a little off from what is expected because of a winter weather phenomenon that never shaped up, known as La Niña.
During a La Niña, Murphey said the jet stream stays more north.
“That typically means drier than normal conditions for the southeast, especially for South Georgia,” Murphey said.
But without it, the weather expert says this winter might be warmer, and Georgians might be in for more rain than usual.
In late December, rumors started swirling based on some long-range forecasts about snow in Georgia in early January.
Climate statistics recorded by the National Weather Service in Peachtree City. (Graphic courtesy of NWS Peachtree City)
However, the National Weather Service in Atlanta said in a social media post on Jan. 1 that it was still too early to predict any snow in Atlanta, but it isn’t likely the area will receive much precipitation.
North Georgia will likely have several days of below-normal temperatures starting around Jan. 7, 2025.
