THURSDAY’S WEATHER | Nice, warm afternoon ahead

Enjoy this nice weather we have coming our way on Thursday because we won’t have these conditions again until next week.

Metro Atlanta will be under partly cloudy skies this afternoon with highs in the 70s. It’s a welcomed change from the dreary, rainy weather we’ve seen the last couple of days.

“It’s going to feel like April later on this afternoon,” Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said.

We won’t get much time to dry out, though. More rain is coming Friday, and a flood watch that covers nearly all of North Georgia is already in place for that night into Saturday after up to 2½ inches of rain fell on Wednesday. It left creeks and other waterways overflowing and prompted several road closures and rescues, all of which we could see more of over the weekend.

In fact, several metro waterways remain under a flood warning on Thursday, with some alerts extending through Saturday morning.

“With that in mind, I want you to go ahead and do a little maintenance here today,” Monahan said. “As we kind of look around the house, maybe some clogged drains — take care of those ... go ahead and remove that debris away from the storm drains.”

Rain is expected to blanket the area around 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, and downpours will continue through the first half of Saturday. By then, we could be looking at another 2 to 3 inches of rain, Monahan said.