TUESDAY’S WEATHER | Strong, possibly severe storms on the way

A light, steady rain greeted early risers in metro Atlanta on Tuesday, but stronger storms are coming later.

If you’re traveling for Thanksgiving, plan accordingly to account for slower traffic on slick roads as a line of storms will be making its way across the state throughout the day.

“It’s been a while since we had a system just like this come across the area,” Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said.

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A risk for strong and isolated storms today

Temperatures are in the upper 50s with just light rain, but as we go into the afternoon, the severe weather risk increases. We’re only at a Level 1 of 5 risk, but that brings along a chance of damaging wind gusts of up to 40 mph, and a small chance of a brief, spin-up tornado can’t be ruled out, Monahan said.

That’s thanks to “what we call the warm sector,” he said. “All you need to know about this is it’s the zone between the cold front and the warm front. It’s where the air gets warm and unstable enough for thunderstorms to develop.”

That warm front is pushing north through the state, bringing today’s high to around 67 degrees in the city. Then, the cold front will slowly move through this afternoon and evening. It’s along and ahead of that front where stronger storms could brew.

Things will dry out overnight, making for a mostly cloudy Wednesday morning — just in time for the Thanksgiving travel rush. Not much rain is in the forecast until Friday, with just a 30% chance of scattered showers.