Temperature rises in Southeast Georgia during fall time-change weekend
An in-depth study has now been completed and everyone in the Douglas, GA, area is sleeping a little more soundly at night. For eight years now, several folks who make it their business to keep up with weather and temperature trends in the area and nationally have noted a disturbing rise during time-change weekend in the fall. After checking with weather stations and bureaus across the Southeast, it seems most have actually had a slight decline in average temperatures for this particular weekend. Could it be that there is some merit to the climate change theory? Would it only affect just this small section in Southeast Georgia?
The only thing that seems to have changed, according to this intense study, is the number of barbecue grills fired up during this period for the past eight years. Everyone on the panel is now in agreement that it’s definitely the heat generated by contestants and vendors during the National BBQ Festival, held every time-change weekend since 2002, that has made the difference. The data shows there is only a small amount of difference beginning on Thursday evening as the grills fire up for the National Best of the Best Invitational and continues to increase on Friday and comes to a crescendo on Saturday morning around 11 a.m. when entries begin to come in during the Open, Backyard, and Kid’s Q events. Some believe the number of pie entries on Saturday around noon has also taken its toll, increasing to over 100, and also heating the outside air temperature. Others noted that heat generated by the large number of people in line at the Big Indoor Yard Sale on Friday and Saturday morning might also be a determining factor.
It’s only a couple of degrees but enough to bring about this special investigation from Al Gore’s Committee on Global Warming. In fact, some members of the panel felt sure this would be the “straw to break the temperature gauge” in their efforts to get immediate action for their special global warming initiative. As their private jet left the area following the investigation, some were seen with looks of disappointment while others were putting the fall time-change weekend on their calendar to return to Douglas, the home of the National Barbecue News and the National BBQ Festival, on November 5-6, 2010, for a closer look! They accessed nationalbbqfestival.com several times to check on the Schedule of Events and make sure their data was correct before coming to this final conclusion. |
