Preliminary reports show that a tornado did touch down near Vinings and Mableton, but crews will head out Thursday for proof, said the National Weather Service.
"At this point, we can’t confirm it, but we do have storm surveys planned for tomorrow," forecaster Ryan Willis said Wednesday night. "But preliminarily it looks like it was a tornado."
A storm churned its way through northern metro Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon downing trees and power lines and causing some structural damage.
Neither Marietta City Schools nor Cobb County School District reported effects from the storm.
The nasty weather started in Cobb County about 1:45 p.m., Willis said.
He said Vinings was hit with some heavy storms and showed some hints of tornado conditions.
But the most obvious effect of the storm was a roof that landed in front of a QuikTrip on Mableton Parkway near Lee Industrial Boulevard.
Willis said that's where there were signs of rotation and a "tornado signature."
Where Lee Industrial turns into Discovery Boulevard further northeast, there was roof damage along with multiple trees and power lines down.
Cobb police officers responded to that QT to find the roof chunk in the road, said agency spokesman Dana Pierce.
He said dispatchers received reports of fallen trees along Providence, Roswell Road and Old Canton roads.
"What we saw was a lot of the side streets that did suffer trees down and some stoplights out and power outages," Pierce said.
There was also a report of a two-vehicle crash in East Cobb that, according to reports police received, happened when one car hydroplaned into another vehicle, Pierce said. There were no injuries.
He said emergency personnel and utility workers made great progress heading into nightfall Wednesday.
"Now it’s kind of getting everything back to normal," he said.
It'll be easier with Thursday's forecast being cool and dry.
"No more in the way of severe weather," Willis said.
