Access Atlanta > The Newcomer > Archives > 2008 > May > 22 > Entry
Welcome to Atlanta: 105 degrees, chance of tornadoes.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A 2006 storm moved south of Atlanta.
I moved to Atlanta the same weekend a tornado swept through downtown. Welcome to town, right?
When the sirens started blaring on Tuesday, I was on the couch with one of these brain-eating-its-way-out-through-the-eyes headaches I’ve started getting when the barometric pressure dives.
As I tried to pretend my head wasn’t exploding, I wondered: how many times can this possibly happen here?
About 22, actually. That’s the average number of times a tornado touches ground in Georgia every year, according to the National Weather Service.
And if we see the remnants of a tropical storm or hurricane heading this way in the coming months, there will be more. As many as 18 tornadoes hit Georgia after Hurricane Katrina, months after our usual March to May tornado season.
Mike Griesinger, a National Weather Service meteorologist who patiently answered my questions about how likely I am to die from a storm or a headache, said the Atlanta area typically gets broken lines of thunderstorms, and within those lines, we find tornadoes. The tornado in Cherokee County this week was on the ground for five miles, which is about the norm. The March 1, 2007 tornado that tore through Alabama and battered Americus in South Georgia was 1 mile wide and 6 miles long, and on the ground for 30 miles.
So, newcomers, it might be worth assessing your tornado plan, whether basement or bathtub. Here’s some tornado safety info from the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.
Weather junkies can call the National Weather Service forecast line at 770-632-1837; to report severe weather, call the Weather Service at 770-486-1333.
Tornado season is dying down, but what else can newcomers expect in the coming months? Click below to find out. And tell me in the comments what bizarre weather you’ve lived through here, and how to handle it. The couch clearly isn’t the best place to weather a twister.
Lightning, and lots of it. “Our thunderstorms in the summer time, they’re prolific lightning producers. There’s a lot of damage due to lightning fires on houses, trees,” Griesinger said. (Need lightning safety tips? Got you covered.)
Thunderstorms to match. The National Weather Service for North and Central Georgia tracks 96 counties, and there’s a thunderstorm somewhere in there every day in the summer. Griesinger joked that he can already state the weather forecast for mid-July: 88 degrees with a 20 percent change of thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Hot. Very, very hot. The record high is 105 in July 1980, but we almost broke it last year when it hit 104 in August. Temperatures usually top out in the low 90s, Griesinger said, but once it’s that warm, it’s hard to tell a difference between the low 90s and the low 100s.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Questions & Answers, Uniquely Georgia, Weather
Comments
By Jeff
May 22, 2008 8:55 AM | Link to this
Best thing I can tell you is to buy a weather radio and stay alert. I generally know of new storm lines when they are still west of the Mississippi, and I keep track of them until they come through West GA. (Everyone I know pretty well lives west of 75, though I also have a lot of relatives in Cherokee.)
If you get a tornado warning for your area, get into the inner most room of your house and cover yourself with blankets, pillows, and mattresses - basically anything to absorb the impact of falling debris. Get out of dodge if you get the warning soon enough.
In the summer, the running joke around my friends in Cartersville is that you don’t want to be around a certain highly-respected member of my parents’ church. He’s been struck by lightning 3 times in his life that I’m aware of.
Other than the tornados though, if you’ve got a deep enough porch/balcony to keep you decently protected from the rain, getting outside on it and watching the storm is something special a lot of true Southerners like to do. As your guy from the NWS said, in GA in the summer you can pretty well expect a storm at LEAST every few days, typically in late afternoon/early evening. Radar is typically useless with these storms though, as they’re usually gone by the time you hear the report on tv/radio. Long time residents of an area can tell you the smells to watch for, and these smells - while locally relatively distinct - are typically pretty accurate for letting you know if a storm is about to pop up.
As far as bizarre weather, ever heard of the Blizzard of ‘93? Twas a March storm, but it aint too often we get snow down here, and this storm deposited several inches as far south as South GA. (I’ve been told it even snowed in ALBANY with that one!)
Outside of that blizzard though - and with the possible exception of the tornado that hit when you moved in - most weather down here is somewhat predictable, even in its unpredictableness.
By TinaTeach
May 22, 2008 9:02 AM | Link to this
What Georgia goes through is nothing compared to my home state of Oklahoma. I think it can seem worse here though because people are still not used to having to deal with tornados. The humidity can be a little much at times too but you can’t pick the weather of where you live!
By Transplanted Georgia Peach
May 22, 2008 9:24 AM | Link to this
I’ve been here 10 years, and tornadoes were a new experience for me as well.
Get yourself one of those wind-up emergency radio/flashlight combos. Mine comes in really handy when the lights go out and I need to tune in and listen to the weather warnings.
Welcome to Georgia!
By tom
May 22, 2008 9:32 AM | Link to this
Ice storms usually do way more damage than snow/blizzards. We haven’t had them often, but if branches and power lines get coated in ice, they come crashing down taking power with them. And of course icing the streets they are impossible to drive saftely. There was one in 99, I think is the last I remember any significant ice forming, we lost a few branches and trees, gratefully kept the power.
They aren’t often but do be aware they happen every so often.
By Kat
June 14, 2008 11:21 PM | Link to this
It’s not the heat that gets you here. It’s the humidity. If you haven’t been through a GA summer yet, get ready for late July-August. Talk to natives about the weather-especially out in the rural areas. I grew up in rural Middle GA, and there are warning signs for tornadoes—i.e. green undertones to the sky. WSBTv has a new weather prediction tool that they love to use whenever there is a thunderstorm in the area. As for our brief winter season, ice is the biggest danger. I was in in 6th grade when we had a big ice storm in Middle Ga, we didn’t have power for a week (not great when you have a well). Be prepared for the mad rush to stock up at the grocery store when a 10% chance of snow is mentioned. It is a Georgian tradition, and you should really participate. If you don’t, bless your little heart….