Power outages remain following Tuesday night storms

» For a detailed forecast, visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution weather page.

UPDATE @ 4:41 a.m.:

Georgia Power reported 26,087 customers without power in DeKalb County, 5,349 customers in Fulton without electricity and 6,889 customers were in the dark in Gwinnett County around 4:30 a.m.

ORIGINAL STORY:

After what was set to be a perfect sunny day, about midway through metro Atlanta and parts of North Georgia were met with hail, high wind gusts, lightning strikes and downed trees.

More than 171,000 residents were left without power as of 10:15 p.m., according to Georgia Power. Crews were working overnight to restore service to customers affected by the more than 1,000 outages.

Another 86,600 Georgia EMC customers were without power about 10:45 p.m., officials said.

Trees hit a car with a child inside and multiple houses in Gwinnett County, according to Fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge. No injuries were sustained in any of the damages, he said.

The downed trees led to several road closures in Gwinnett and DeKalb including one on Mount Vernon Road in Dunwoody and another on Scenic Tree Drive in Lawrenceville.

🛑 stop sign.— Gwinnett Police Dept (@GwinnettPd)

North Georgia first saw between ping pong and golf ball-sized hail about 5 p.m., a change from the 80-degree weather the region saw at noon. Precipitation was falling at about 100 mph, according to Channel 2 Action News.

Calhoun residents told the news station they were stuck at a Race Trak gas station after the power went out about 7 p.m.

Storms didn’t reach the metro area until about 8 p.m. where strong winds and lightning strikes were reported along with flying debris. Earlier, a thunderstorm watch was issued, but escalated to a warning about 8:20 p.m.

The storms were a stark contrast to the warm weather and record-breaking temps in the metro area.

Atlanta broke the record high temperature for this date, reaching 85 degrees Tuesday afternoon. The previous high for March 21 was 84 degrees, set in 1948.

And pollen was up.

The count is 1,549 particles per cubic meter of air, which is in the “extremely high” range and up from a “moderate” 57 on Friday, according to Atlanta Allergy and Asthma.

Current temps are 83 degrees in Atlanta, 72 in Blairsville and 84 in Griffin.