Now that grape harvest is starting, I’ll be providing harvest outlooks for the grape growers across the region on the UGA Viticulture page, but I thought I would also share them here for others who might be harvesting crops in the next few weeks.

Today we are seeing the passage of a rare summer cold front through the Southeast. It’s been raining at my house in Athens today, but as the front moves southeast through the region the rain should progress to the south, leaving most of the grape-growing region in northern Georgia cool and dry for the next few days. You can see where the colder air has already reached into the region on the temperature map below from the UGA weather network (along with some cooling in the areas where it is raining). We should see lower temperatures both day and night and clear skies along with low humidity levels. By Saturday night, the front will creep north again, and rain and warmer temperatures will return to the forecast. The long range forecasts indicate that spotty showers and some thunderstorms as well as warmer and more humid conditions are expected for most of next week, with a possible mid-week dry day. The tropics are pretty quiet today with the dissolving of Tropical Depression 3 off the east coast of Florida. Not much expected in the next week, but the Gulf of Mexico temperatures are quite warm and if something develops it could grow to a tropical storm which could potentially affect us. Plenty of time to watch for that, though.

Of course, there is no substitute for a good local forecast, so I know you will be watching those as well. I like the National Weather Service hourly forecasts. Here is a link to the one for Blairsville, GA for the next six days (two shown at a time). You can put in your own location or click on a map to get more specific info for your location. .

Blairsville is at https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=34.87510000000003&lon=-83.95780999999994#.XTdIw3t7nIV and choose the Hourly Weather graph below right, or enter your own location in the search box.

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