Justin Williams WALB

5-16-2026: Sunday afternoon/evening scattered storms, not expecting severe weather but a storm or two could be on the stronger side (small hail, frequent lightning, winds up to 40 mph). Rain chances fall off through the work week, but a stray shower/storm can't be ruled out each day. Temperatures float around 90 with high humidity through the week. Showers may return next weekend, still lots of uncertainty though at this time.

5-16-2026: Hope you like hot and humid days because we have a lot of those incoming. Heat index tomorrow will be in the low 90s, but your Sunday will feature a chance for storms in the afternoon and evening hours. Rain chances are slim pickings after that for much of this next week. I do have my eye on next weekend for potentially wetter weather, more on that in the article below!
https://www.walb.com/2026/05/17/stormy-sunday-then-hot-humid/

5-15-2026: We get steamy this weekend as temperatures turn up to near 90 and humidity increases! Spotty storms Sunday afternoon before early next week is mostly dry. Rain chances perk back up on the back end of next week. Temperatures hold on to around 90 degrees for the next 7 days.

5-15-2026: Long Drought Discussion:
This week's drought monitor showed improvement, just very little. The main area of improvement was in Seminole, Early, Miller and Baker counties, they dropped to a D3 Extreme Drought from a D4 Exceptional Drought. Elsewhere, everyone else remains the same. On top of that, ever since the New Year, the Deficit in Albany is only -0.61", this is not a number indicative of widespread Extreme-Exceptional drought across South Georgia. Plus, currently Albany is having its wettest month since last August! What gives, why is this drought not breaking? Well the numbers don't tell the story truthfully, they are skewed. But the real reason this drought is so bad goes back to 2025, not 2026.

To begin, the South Georgia Drought has roots that go all the way back to August of 2025. From September through November, we had a historically dry spell, only picking up 1.87 inches of rainfall in 3 months time. This created a near 7 inch rainfall deficit heading into December, which was slowly built upon through the first couple months of the New Year. Then, we had an extremely wet beginning of May which skewed our "year to date rainfall" totals seen in the second image. Take out the last 2 weeks of rainfall, and we would be in a -4" rainfall deficit for the year so far, on top of a nearly -7" rainfall deficit built up at the end of 2025. That is the real story of it all, the last two weeks has been great and beneficial, but we need more consistent rainfall over a longer span of time to break a drought. Isolated and short-lived bursts of significant rainfall can chip away at a drought, but it will not offer immediate regionwide relief. In fact, nothing besides a tropical system can bring immediate relief to this kind of drought plaguing South Georgia. To break a drought like this, you need a sustained, long period of above average rainfall. So far, the month of May is a good start, but we need much more.

5-15-2026: Close but no cigar, Albany hit a near record low of 50° this morning. The record low for this day in Albany, 49°, goes all the way back to 1917. A marvelous afternoon is ahead for your Friday, low humidity and sunny skies with highs in the low-mid 80s.

For all of you Summer lovers out there, this weekend is for you. Temperatures warm significantly and humidity increases, peak heat index will likely be, or exceed, 90° this weekend. Summer-like heat sticks around next week along with a few chances for storms as well. Check out the article below for more!
https://www.walb.com/2026/05/15/summer-like-heat-builds-this-weekend/