The storms are back.

For the second time this week, much of metro Atlanta was under the cover of heavy to moderate rain Thursday afternoon.

The National Weather Service said things could turn severe Thursday afternoon or evening, just four days after a line of early morning tornadoes cut a $125 million path of destruction from Carrollton to Ellenwood to Dublin.

Thursday's system stretched southwest through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, where it produced severe thunderstorms and suspected tornadoes earlier in the week. Parts of southern Alabama were under a tornado warning at 2:30 p.m. Nearly all of Georgia faced the possibility of severe weather, according to the National Weather Service.

The rain moved in about the same time a two-car crash closed both eastbound lanes of I-20 between Post Road and State Route 5 in Douglas County, the Georgia Department of Transportation reported.

"Please tell your readers to slow down and be careful," GDOT's Monica Luck said. "It rains cars in Atlanta."

The weekend should bring clearing skies with highs in the upper-70s and lows in the mid-50s, according to Marietta-based the Weather Channel. No severe weather was predicted.

As of Thursday afternoon, GDOT planned to resume its weekend repaving project on the downtown connector Friday night through Monday morning.

A final decision would be made about noon Friday, said GDOT spokeswoman Crystal Paulk Buchanan.

The work was canceled last weekend because of rain.

"It seems like the only way to get it to rain in Atlanta is to repave the downtown connector," she joked.