Eastern Cold Front To Bring Storms, Gusty Winds To Georgia

GEORGIA — A cold front making its way through the east and producing storms should creep into Georgia Friday night, weather officials told Patch.

Meteorologist Vaughn Smith said the front is coming from Mississippi, Kentucky and Tennessee. Although Smith said the storms will weaken by the time they reach Georgia, he sends a warning to people.

"It’s still going to be a decent system," he said early Friday morning. "It’s just not going to be as strong as it is right now. ... But, we still do have a threat."

The front will first target northwest Georgia before moving through the Peach State into Saturday. Thunderstorms are forecast to move through the northern metro Atlanta counties between 4-6 a.m. before going through Atlanta at sunrise and heading for southern metro Atlanta around noon. Smith said the storms should make their way into Florida by Saturday night.

Smith said the major threats are 30-50 mph gusty winds and lightning. There's also an extremely minimal chance for an isolated tornado and hail is possible as of 11 a.m. Friday. Smith said the storms could potentially produce 60 mph winds.

At speeds of 30-50 mph, he said trees and power lines could be knocked down and outside furniture could be moved around the area.

"This is a fairly typical storm system for this time of the year," Smith said.

Once the storms pass, Saturday night and Sunday should be dry with possible showers on Monday due to another wave of rain forecast for Mississippi, he said.

Temperatures are expected to be in the low 60s Friday night with Saturday highs in the 70s and low 80s. Sunday morning temps are anticipated to be in the mid-40s with highs in the lower 70s throughout the day.

The heavy rain Saturday comes after a round of storms hit parts of Georgia this past weekend into Monday morning, primarily affecting middle Georgia.

Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency Sunday, which is set to expire at 11:59 p.m., April 3.

An EF3 tornado impacted Troup County, according to the weather service's preliminary report. There were no fatalities, but five people were injured.

"The long track tornado first touched down just inside the Alabama-Georgia state line, just west of the Chattahoochee River along State Line Road, where several trees were snapped and noted as
EF0 damage. In the course of the next 1.25 miles, the tornado would rapidly intensify to EF3 as it moved into North West Point," weather officials said in the report.

"West Point Road or Hwy 29, sustained the most significant damage with several homes completely leveled and many sustaining major damage. Of the four homes completely leveled, it was noted that the anchoring of the walls to the concrete slab was through the use of nails. As a result, the destroyed homes would have failed at lower wind speeds than EF4 thus a rating of EF3 was determined."

An EF1 tornado hit Baldwin and Meriwether counties while Twiggs and Laurens counties got an EF0 tornado, weather officials said.

The weather service has established a webpage especially for Georgia weather updates. A timestamped breakdown of weather activity in primary cities is included. Find it here.