One-third of Georgia in extreme, exceptional drought

ATLANTA — With Halloween high temperatures projected to be in the 80s, this weekend and the days following will provide little relief for the growing problem across the state.

Severe Weather Team 2 meteorologist Karen Minton said temperatures could be near record levels through the weekend, with a high of 86 on Halloween.

Minton said the day most likely to break a record is Sunday.

As of Oct. 19-24, drought is affecting 20 percent of the United States and 119.9 million people.

NO RELIEF IN SIGHT

Very little rain is expected in north Georgia this weekend, as Tennessee sees showers. This means that drought and fire danger will continue to increase and worsen. As of Thursday, the Georgia Forestry Commission had responded to 131 wildfires in the state of Georgia in just 48 hours. Wildfire activity is up 121 percent for the month of October based on a 5-year average, meteorologist Katie Walls said.

A new fire broke out overnight in Whitfield.

Severe Weather Team 2 is tracking the excessive heat and what it means for Georgia’s worsening drought on Channel 2 Action News throughout the day and the weekend.

RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES

Record high temperatures are possible this weekend. The record high for Oct.30, is 83, set in 1998, 1984 and 1961. Severe Weather Team 2 says the high for Sunday could be 85 degrees.

[Download the Severe Weather 2 app for hour-by-hour forecasts for your area]

AROUND THE COUNTRY

As of last week, significant rainfall (2 to 6 inches) in the Northeast helped improve drought-affected areas of western New York, Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island. In eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, locally heavy rainfall accumulations led to improvements. In the West, 1 to 5 inches of precipitation fell in western Oregon and Washington. Storm events in the Pacific Northwest during the last 30 days led to improvements on the map in Oregon and Washington, according to Drought.gov.

Cox Media Group