Frightful forecast: rain, thunderstorms for Halloween

By Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

If you're still looking for a Halloween costume, you might try dressing up as Noah -- as in ark. You'll fit right in with Saturday's ghoulish forecast of an 80 percent chance of rain.

The National Weather Service said early Friday that a cold front over the Mississippi Valley region would slowly push eastward, bringing a good chance of showers and thunderstorms to metro Atlanta beginning Friday night and continuing throughout the day on Saturday.

While drizzle and light rain moved into the metro area late Friday morning, the bulk of the wet stuff was still well west of Georgia in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana.

By Saturday night, the chance of rain will diminish to 30 percent, forecasters said.

The forecast calls for a 70 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms overnight, with lows in the low 60s. Rainfall amounts overnight should be between .10 and .25 inch, with higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Similar amounts of rain are expected Saturday, when highs will be in the mid-60s, followed by lows Saturday night in the mid-40s.

Sunday should be sunny, with highs again in the mid-60s.

Football fans in Jacksonville, Fla., for Saturday's Georgia-Florida game will find partly sunny skies with highs in the mid-80s. Web sites of the Georgia and Florida departments of transportation reported no major road construction projects on the primary routes between Atlanta and Jacksonville.

The forecast for Nashville, where Georgia Tech takes on Vanderbilt Saturday night, calls for partly cloudy skies, with temperatures dropping during the game from an afternoon highs in the upper 50s toward an overnight low in the low 40s.