Thousands of Georgians woke up without power Thursday morning after severe storms rumbled across the state overnight.
The storms blew over the state from South Carolina and maintained their strength thanks to the high heat and humidity smothering the Peach State. That gave them enough power to knock out trees and power lines with 60 to even 80 mph wind gusts.
Georgia Power reported about 18,000 customers in the dark as of 9:45 a.m. Georgia EMC, which represents the cooperatives that primarily serve rural parts of the state, showed its members had more than 7,000 outages. Both agencies have already restored power to thousands of customers early Thursday.
A majority of outages are concentrated in metro Atlanta, Middle Georgia and coastal areas.
More storms are expected late Thursday afternoon and evening, forecasters say, but they should be more scattered and therefore pack less power. There is still a marginal, or a Level 1 of 5, risk for severe weather across nearly all of Georgia, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center.
Credit: Ben Hendren for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Ben Hendren for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“With isolated severe storms, they drift around, (and) they’re kind of messy looking on radar because they’re so slow-moving,” Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said.
The main concern for any severe storms will be for damaging winds and potentially a few instances of dime- to quarter-size hail, the Weather Service reports.
The heat is also not going away, though it should not be quite as hot as the last few days that left the eastern half of the country cooking under oppressive heat. Metro Atlanta’s highs are expected to stay in the low 90s compared to the upper 90s we saw earlier this week.
That means the heat index — which measures how hot it actually feels by factoring in the humidity — should stay below the 105-degree threshold for a heat advisory. Though, an advisory remains in place until 8 p.m. for far northwest Georgia.
Even with lower temps, it will still be smothering, so it’s still “a good idea to take heat precautions,” the Weather Service advises. That means staying hydrated and avoiding prolonged periods outdoors or by taking frequent breaks if you do have to be outside.
Another reason to limit outdoor time: Atlanta’s air quality could reach Code Orange levels, meaning it will be “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” including children and those with respiratory conditions. That is because ground-level pollutants, such as ozone, will likely have time to heat up and rise before storms arrive.
Ozone is a gas created when chemicals coming out of vehicles and factories get “cooked” by the sun, making smog alerts most common in the summer, according to the U.S. Air Quality Index. Inhaling it can sometimes be painful and could make the lining of your airways red and swollen, similar to a sunburn.
Even with all the recent rain, we’re in a “very stagnant pattern,” according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which monitors air quality. That means there’s been little movement in the atmosphere, which has allowed pollutants to compound over the last few days, the agency explained.
» For a detailed forecast, visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution weather page.
» For updated traffic information, listen to News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB and follow @WSBTraffic on X, formerly Twitter.
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