2021 Masters weather: Storms could play a role at Augusta National

The 2020 Masters featured one of the most closely watched forecasts in tournament history. The first-ever playing of the event in the month of November gave way to months of consternation surrounding the conditions at Augusta National in the winter months, which gave way to further consternation about how those conditions could be affected by fall weather.

Ultimately, weather played a major factor throughout the week, with heavy rains forcing not only adjusted tee times and an abbreviated cutline, but also major shifts to typical course conditions. With soggy conditions and soft greens for most of the first two-and-a-half days of play, pros could attack pins at Augusta National more than at any Masters in recent memory, and the final result was astonishing. Dustin Johnson won with the lowest 72-hole score of any Masters-winner ever, narrowly edging out Cameron Smith and Sungjae Im, among others, who also recorded record scores for runners-up.

Augusta, Ga. in the spring may be similarly temperate, but its conditions are typically far different. For one, the spring months typically are a notch warmer than in the winter months. Not enough to alter your attire if you’re among the lucky few to attend this year’s event — shorts are probably the ideal selection in either time of year if you’re coming from the northeast — but certainly enough to adjust your expectations. For another, the old “April showers” axiom holds little weight in Augusta, where there is more precipitation during the winter months than in the spring months.

In theory, we should anticipate a return to “normal” course conditions at this year’s Masters, which is to say that it would be unexpected (though not entirely out of the question) to witness another record scoring affair at the 2021 tournament.

In practice, the forecast tells us the weather is a mixed bag for the week at Augusta National. The Weather Channel currently lists chances for storms on three of the four tournament days in Augusta, Ga. On Thursday, the forecast calls for 84 degrees with a 37 percent chance of thunderstorms. On Friday and Saturday, the forecast calls for 79 degrees with a chance of scattered thunderstorms on both days (52 percent on Friday and 54 percent on Saturday). Sunday, the weather looks significantly better, with temperatures at 79 degrees and only a 10 percent chance of rain.