THURSDAY’S WEATHER | Very cold, dry and breezy Leap Day

Hopefully you didn’t pack away the heavy winter coats after several warm days, because we’re getting a reminder that it’s still winter in metro Atlanta this Leap Day morning.

Starting off, temperatures are nearly 30 degrees lower than where they have been for the past several mornings.

“That means you’re waking up to temperatures that are down in the 30s this morning across North Georgia,” Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said.

The highs today and Friday will be much lower than the springlike 70s we’ve gotten used to. Today we will top out in the mid-50s, and on Friday, we might not make it out of the 40s.

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“Now, if this is too cold for you, one thing I want to remind you now, as we get closer, officially, to the start of spring, these returns of winter weather, they’re getting shorter and shorter. They don’t last very long,” Monahan said.

By the weekend, we’ll be back in the mid to upper 60s for highs.

We’ll have some breeze around today, but it won’t be as bad as Wednesday’s winds that toppled trees and knocked out power for some across the metro.

In Decatur, Grace Campbell’s apartment was hit by a tree that came down while she was running an errand Wednesday afternoon.

Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com

Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com

“Fortunately nobody got hurt,” she said.

There’s no rain in the forecast today, either. Overnight, though, there may be a few showers that pop up ahead of more widespread rain that arrives Friday morning.

“It’s going to be a soaker,” Monahan said. “No storms, no severe weather, no thunder or lightning or anything, but chilly and rainy and wet for your Friday.”

That rain will linger a bit into the first part of the weekend, but the trend will be for dryer, warmer weather as we finish off the weekend and head into next week.