Weather Blog: October dry stretch is breaking records

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT)—It is officially the final week of October and the city of Augusta, like many places across the CSRA, has not measured any rainfall since September 27th.

Hurricane Helene dropped over a foot of rainfall in portions of the CSRA, but it has been hard to find any measurable rainfall since. We have seen a few quick isolated drops of rain, but again not enough to measure. As of October 29th, we have gone 32 days without rainfall in Augusta.

How does this dry stretch compare to past dry stretches?

We are currently tied for the 4th longest dry stretch in Augusta since recordings started back in 1871. The current top spot for the longest run without rain dates back to 2005 when Augusta went 37 days without rainfall ending November 15th.

It is interesting to note that 4 out of the top 5 longest dry stretches occurred through the month of October. October is our driest month of the year on average in Augusta.

The record driest October for Augusta is a trace of rainfall in 1953, 2nd driest was 0.01″ in 1963 and 1943. With not even a trace of rain reported at Bush Field this month, and not much expected the rest of the month, October 2024 will likely go down as the driest October on record.