Albany’s winter ending with a shiver

ALBANY — You might want to wait a few days before you pack away those sweaters, which haven’t seen much use this winter.

With the first day of spring a week away, Albany and Southwest Georgia are poised to have a few days of unseasonably cold weather this week.

A cold front moved through the area Monday, bringing with it rain and cooler temperatures that will lead to colder nighttime lows Tuesday through Thursday nights.

“Tuesday will be fairly cool, with a high around 60 degrees and dry conditions,” Andy Lahr, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Tallahassee, which covers Southwest Georgia, said Monday. “Tuesday night, there’s a low of 33.”

Wednesday’s high will get only into the low 50s — NWS forecasters think it’ll top out at 53 — before subfreezing temperatures hit Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. That overnight low is expected to dip to 29 degrees.

“Wednesday could be 15-20 degrees below normal. Frost and maybe a freeze is possible (Wednesday), but most likely Thursday morning,” Lahr said. “It should start warming up after that.”

The cooler temperatures will continue Thursday, which will top out at 60, and Thursday night, which has an expected low of 35. After that, temperatures should be more seasonable, with a high of 68 Friday, and highs in the low- and mid-70s and lows in the mid- to upper-40s over the weekend. Normal highs this time of year are in the low 70s with lows around 45.

Lahr said the late burst of cold weather came from a “fairly strong” cold front. He said it didn’t appear that much precipitation would come after the skies cleared Monday night. By 5 p.m. Monday, the NWS gauge at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport had recorded 0.18 inch of rain since Sunday midnight.

Southwest Georgia has experienced a mild winter temperature-wise, and Lahr said this week appears to be the last of the cold weather “for now.”

“You can’t really rule out the possibility of another cool spell toward the end of the month,” he said.

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association reported that February was the second-warmest in 123 years of recording temperatures, while the winter as a whole (December-February) was the sixth-warmest on record and the eighth-wettest.

In the South, NOAA said Louisiana and Texas had their warmest winter on record, with temperatures 6.8 and 5.7 degrees above average, respectively. Georgia, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee had their second-warmest winter, as did New Mexico and West Virginia. For only the third time on record, Chicago had no measurable snowfall in February.

Spring begins at 6:29 a.m. Monday.