VALDOSTA — South Georgia is suffering from a drought, according to forecasters.

The Valdosta area is 2.35 inches behind on its average summer rainfall, said Kristian Oliver, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Tallahassee, Fla., office.

“It’s pretty dry around the area,” he said. “We’re in the ‘abnormally dry’ category, which is the lowest tier of drought.”

For the entire year, the Azalea City is actually ahead of the game for rainfall, with 2.35 inches more than normal, Oliver said.

Over the weekend, the summer dry spell for South Georgia is expected to worsen, as rainfall chances decrease and high temperatures hover around 98 degrees in Valdosta and Tifton, the weather service’s forecast shows. These temperatures are in line with the usual average high temperatures for this time of year, Oliver said.

A frontal system moving through the South is dragging a lot of dry northerly air south, he said.

Monday, the front is expected to move out of the area, pulling more moist southerly air into the region and bumping up the chances for South Georgia’s famed late afternoon thunderstorms, said John Feerick, senior meteorologist for the private forecasting firm AccuWeather.

“A high pressure system will be in control” early next week, he said.

Both forecasters said there was little chance of widespread severe weather, though Feerick said occasional damaging winds with isolated thunderstorms from Monday onward couldn’t be ruled out.