Higher-than-expected winds cause downed trees, power outages

[UPDATE: 4 p.m.] High winds Friday afternoon have exceeded forecasts and played havoc on trees and power lines around metro Atlanta.

Wind gusts of 30-to-40 mph have brought down trees and caused power outages in multiple metro area counties. The National Weather Service extended a wind advisory through 8 p.m. across most of North Georgia, Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Ashley Kramlich said.

Nearly 9,000 Georgia Power customers have lost electricity across Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton counties. Georgia EMCs reported a little more than 1,500 outages across its metro Atlanta region just before 4:30 p.m.

[ORIGINAL ARTICLE]: After the last few stormy days, we’ve got the treat of fantastic weather coming this weekend. But first, we have to make it through a cool, windy Friday.

Metro Atlantans are waking up to temperatures in the 40s and 50s ahead of sunrise. By the afternoon, we’ll top out in the upper 60s for highs.

No rain is in the forecast, but the wind is still whipping around.

“A little less wind overall, but you’re still going to notice those strong gusts as we head through today,” Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said.

Gusts could reach about 20 to 25 mph, he said. Winds could be stronger in the northeast Georgia mountains, where another wind advisory is in effect from noon until 8 p.m.

The wind will likely stir up the pollen that was knocked out of the air by all the rain we’ve had the last few days.

“The pollen count has been down a little bit with the wet weather we’ve had over the last few days,” Monahan said. “(But we’re) likely gonna get one more burst of that pollen as we head through the next few days.”

Thursday’s count was in the high range at 418, which was down from 2,013 (extremely high) on Tuesday before rain fell that evening. Friday’s count will be updated by mid-morning.

The good news, though, is we’re in the timeframe in which we usually see the last “extremely high” count of the year. Last year, for example, the last extreme count fell on April 21.

“You can kind of look outside, see everything’s kind of greened up at this point. A lot of the leaves are on the trees,” Monahan said. “So if you suffer from allergies, good news for you is we are just about over the hump of the tree pollen season.”

Winds should die down overnight, paving the way for a Saturday that is looking like the picture of spring. Highs will be in the mid 70s under mostly sunny skies with no rain in sight.

We’ll do it again on Sunday, with just a bit warmer weather. Highs then will climb up to the low 80s.

By early next week, we’re expecting the warmest weather of the year so far. Highs will be in the mid to upper 80s, and we’ll stay dry through the middle of the week.