MACON, Ga. — This stretch of weather in Central Georgia has been incredibly warm. Parts of Georgia, including Macon and Atlanta, have set record daytime high temperatures this week.
More significant are the records set with the warm overnight low temperatures. The past three mornings in Macon have all been record warm mornings.
Tuesday morning's low of 69 degrees broke the Nov. 10, 1979 record morning low of 66 degrees. That margin expanded on Wednesday as Wednesday morning's low of 72 degrees was seven degrees above the previous record warm morning low of 65 set on Nov. 11, 2002.
A similar story continued Thursday morning as well.
Record are supposed to be tough to break. Each record is an extreme for the day. Extremes are usually only beaten by small margins.
For example, usually when we set temperature records, the new temperature record is usually only a degree or two warmer or cooler than the previous record. Shattering temperature records by three to seven degrees is rare.
To give the numbers a little different perspective, look at the morning low temperatures of the past three mornings compared to the average low temperature for this time of year.
Each morning was 25 degrees or more above normal. Wednesday morning was a whopping 28 degrees above what we would expect for mid-November.
This raises the question: "Is this because of climate change?" While no one particular event can be blamed solely on climate change, meteorologists know that climate change will make the extremes more extreme.
These record warm temperatures would fit that description, but we can't completely blame the climate.
Temperatures will cool down over the coming days. This winter, we'll likely set a record low temperature or two. But for now, we'll deal with the tail end of this record setting stretch of warmth.
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