1925: A Year of Extreme Weather
As the year 2025 reaches its midpoint, let's go back a century ago. No one will forget the extreme weather from September 2024 to January 2025. It was five months in which we survived a late September Category 2 hurricane, dozens of small tornadoes, and the second heaviest snowfall in the recorded history of Laurens County in January 2025.
Yet, the year 1925 was a year of wild, wacky, and weird weather. There were flash floods and extended droughts. There were very cold days and a 30-day-long stretch of temperatures above 90 degrees.
September 1925 may have been the hottest month in the history of Laurens County. Four of the twenty-five highest recorded temperatures occurred between September 4 and September 5.
On these two sizzling September days, the local weather station’s thermometer measured 108. On the 8th and 9th, the high temp dropped to 106 and 107, respectively. On the 20th, the high dropped to a cooler 106 degrees. The 108-degree days still stand as the 2nd highest recorded temperature in history.
States all over the South suffered from the September drought. For an entire month, or 30 days, there was no measurable rain from April 11 to May 12, establishing the 17th longest drought. For the record, from April 16 – June 2, 2007, there was no rain in 48 days, or close to seven weeks.
Right in the middle of the 11-day drought, the Oconee’s level was 2.7 feet below zero. The level remained below zero or just above until the winter rains came. The streak started just as thousands of Dublin school children were headed back to school. There were also hundreds of Macon, Georgia, business leaders in town to attend a banquet hosted by their Dublin counterparts in the air-cooled New Dublin Hotel banquet room.
During the year, the temperature officially reached 100 degrees or higher on 29 days, setting the third most in county history, coming behind 1954 (41), and 1980 (36.) The all time yearly total of days at 90 degrees set a record with 137, a number which amounts to 37.5 percent of the year. The all-time hottest year of 1954 had only 132 days. For eleven days from September 2 to September 12, the temperature reaches the century mark, the third longest streak in county history behind the recent years of 1954 and 1980.
On the low side, the temperature dropped below freezing 29 times, making the 25th year of the 20th Century, just about average. For what it's worth, the low temperature of the year occurred right after Christmas when the thermometers dropped to a bone-chilling 12 degrees.
The rain gauges during the first month of the year measured a total of 14.5, an all-time record for any month. The total is even more remarkable than the rains that occurred in a non-tropical storm month. The clouds ran out of water. The floods stopped, and the county only received 30 inches in the last eleven months, making 1925 a below-average year. In January, the highest day with 3.6 inches took place on January 19. In all, rain fell on nearly half the days of January.
The constant and heavy rains of January pushed the level of the Oconee River to record heights. On January 20, the river measured 29 feet. No Dubliner would have believed that in eight months, there would be virtually no water in the river near the bridge, making it unnecessary to cross the river. On the eastern edge of Dublin, a reporter wrote that every tributary branch was turning into a creek, and every tributary creek became a river.
Dublin’s factories and businesses closed. Residents of the Scottsville neighborhood in Northeast Dublin fled their homes, a ritual that was all too common with high river levels. Train service on the Macon, Dublin, and Savannah Railroad and the Wrightsville and Tennille Railroad came to a halt when officials feared that creek bridges would wash away and that crossing the shared river railroad bridge was extremely dangerous. Rising water flooded the Ice House, ending its critical operation.
County officials reported that most of the county bridges were being washed away or were in imminent danger of failing. The floor of the steel bridge over Hunger and Hardship Creek at the northern end of North Franklin Street was five feet under water. Mail delivery came to a virtual halt. Rural mailmen could not get their letters out of Dublin.
The scenes around Dublin and Laurens County were repeated all over Middle and South Georgia. In Dublin, there were several auto collisions with multiple injuries. The flood waters waned on January 22 in Dublin following three rainless days. Limited train service resumed. Mail deliveries were made wherever the roads were once again passable. The community would not return to normal until the end of the month.
For an entire month, or 30 days, there was no measurable rain from April 11 to May 12, establishing the 17th longest drought. For the record, from April 16 – June 2, 2007, there was no rain in 48 days, or close to seven weeks, to establish the all-time longest drought.
We can only hope that rough weather will always be normal. It is up to all of us to keep informed through a massive network of weather forecasts on the Internet. When these dangerous storms come, it is imperative that we think of others and strictly follow the instructions given to us by public officials.
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