PIECES OF OUR PAST - OUR CHANGING CLIMATE

 OUR CHANGING CLIMATE

Today, there is hardly a more divisive and vicious arguments than whether our climate is changing for worse.   I am not a meteorologist, the numbers over the last 135 years or so tell a story of how much our climate, temperatures and rain levels, can change from year to year and even decade to decade.

Obviously, the coldest months are January, December, and February with average lows of 35, 37.2, and 37.9.  The same is true of the warmest months with July, August, and June with 71, 70.1, and 67.2.  Our average yearly temperature is a high of 77 and a low of 52.7 with a mean temperature a nice 64.9.  Our coldest year, 1976, came in with an average temperature of 61.9 degrees. 

Now for some interesting records.  The highest daily low was way back on August 18, 1893, when the lowest temperature was 82 degrees.  A year or so later on Dec. 28, 1894, thermometers read 23 degrees as the high for the day. 

The greatest daily differential came on January 24, 1963, when  the temperature went from 68 to 9 degrees.  The largest two-day difference was 47 degrees on that same Dec. 28, 1894. 

Few of us like to see freezing temperatures last more than a day.  From Jan. 18 through Jan. 20, 1977, the temperature never made it above freezing.

On the other hardly anyone likes the heat.  From April 28 to October 1, 1930, the temperature rose above 80 for 157 days to set the all time record for consecutive days above 80.  More recently, a temperature of 90 degrees occurred for 67 days from June 7 to  August 12, 1986.  Those of you who are in the seventies or above should remember the summer of 1954, most likely the hottest and driest year ever.  In a seventeen day stretch from June 22 to July 8, all thermometers reached the melting point of 100 degrees. 

To bolster the proponents of global warning dangers, here are the all time daily temperature highs  set in the last year:   Mar. 1, 2023, Feb. 24, 2023, Feb. 23, 2023, Feb. 18, Dec. 24, Dec. 9,   June 23, Feb. 26, 2022 (All time monthly high, Feb. 25, Feb. 19, Jan. 2, 2022, and Jan.1, 2022. 

Our earliest freeze came on October 18, 1987 while the latest freeze hit new and flowering plants on April 21, 1983. The earliest day to have 100 degree highs was May 12, 1916, while the last day to hit the century mark was Oct. 6, 1954. 

Sometimes we wonder who will stop the rain and other times we ask how in the heck are we going to wash our necks if it ain’t gonna rain no more.  

January 19, 1943 is best known here not for the birth of Janis Joplin, but the 7.1 inches of rain which fell in Dublin, an all time daily record high.  Rain does not always fall in the same amounts on all 810 square miles of Laurens County, so other places may have gotten more than that.  

The monthly record came not from tropical storms in the summer, but from a series of rainstorms in January 1925.  For local weather researchers 1925 was the craziest, coldest, hottest, wettest, and driest year all in the same year. Cotton farmers suffered in 1912 when 70.3 inches nearly six feet of rain fell upon their fields.  

The longest streak of measurable rain came from May 15 to June 13, 2018.  (20 days) The longest drought (45 days) occurred two years earlier from October 17 to November  30, 2016.

Snow in Dublin 1914

The earliest snow fall came on November 28, 1912 and the latest shocked area residents on March 14, 1924.  The largest accumulation came some fifty years ago on February 9 and 10, 1973 when fourteen inches of snow turned Laurens County into a Winter Wonderland. 

In the recent decade, the average hottest year was 2019 (66.6).  No others were in the top ten.  In fact average temps have come down in 2021 and 2022 from above averages highs from 2011 to 2018. Only one of the coldest recent decade did not come in from 1968 to 1988, a remarkable occurrence in and of itself considering the global warning theories.  

 Ice Storm Dec. 31, 1963 - January 1. 1964   Dublin