TUESDAY’S WEATHER: Cloudy and cooler before the next chance of rain

The sky over metro Atlanta will again look gray Tuesday, but it should stay mainly dry before heavy rain returns to the forecast Wednesday.

Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said the clouds are the product of a cool wedge that is keeping temperatures below average. Atlanta is starting Tuesday in the 40s and 50s, and those numbers won’t move much this afternoon. The city’s projected high is 52 degrees.

There won’t be much sunshine Wednesday, either, ahead of a warm front that will bring 1 to 2 inches of heavy rainfall into the area, Monahan said. But conditions should clear up quickly by Thursday afternoon, setting up North Georgia for a sunny and much cooler end to the week.

“Once we get past this weather, once we get past the clouds today and the rain that’s going to move in tomorrow and Thursday, I think you’re really going to like the weekend forecast,” he said.

The first half of Wednesday should stay dry, according to Monahan. Showers will start to increase Wednesday afternoon, he said, and the heavy rain will arrive Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.

Rumbles of thunder are likely, but Monahan said he does not expect severe weather locally as the warm front will stick to the south. Most of the storm activity will be confined to the overnight hours.

“We are going to see some heavy rain move through after midnight and into Thursday morning, and at least for part of the Thursday morning commute there could be some wet weather before we dry out for Thursday afternoon, and it turns much colder.”

Cold air moving in behind the front will drop temperatures into the 30s on Friday morning, and this weekend Monahan does not expect Atlanta to get out of the 40s after freezing starts Saturday and Sunday.