2018 Was Atlanta’s Second Wettest On Record
A storm cloud passes over the downtown skyline in Atlanta, Monday, June 25, 2018.
David Goldman / Associated Press
If you feel like there was a whole lot of rain last year in Atlanta, you’re right. 2018 was the second-wettest year on record, with 70.03 inches of rain — more than 20 inches higher than average.
“Really, I was wondering if we were going to make it to number one,” said Bill Murphey, state climatologist at the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
“We had another system going on just before New Year’s Eve and we really needed about that inch, inch and a half to put us over the top, and we didn’t quite make it. We got it the day after New Year’s,” he said. “It was close.”
The earlier part of the year was drier, said Murphey. In fact, there were water use restrictions in place for most of metro Atlanta until March. Things really changed in this part of the state after Hurricane Michael, he said.
“After that the pattern really shifted a good bit,” he said. “We started getting a lot more systems coming across the area.”
It rained for nine days straight from Dec. 27 through Jan. 4, so 2019 had a wet beginning, too.
2018 ended up just shy of beating Atlanta’s wettest year on record, 1948.
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