Expect more blustery winds and maybe a few snow flurries in the metro Atlanta area.
It will be mostly clear, windy, and cold overnight with a passing snow flurry possible, Channel 2 Action News chief meteorologist Glenn Burns said Thursday. The temperature is expected to dip to around 28 degrees, which is 4 degrees below average for this time of year, he said.
Winds will remain strong through the night and much of Friday, Burns said.
The blustery winds coming in ahead of the bitter cold caused havoc across the metro Atlanta area Thursday night as falling trees and tree limbs brought down power lines, blacking out thousands of customers and creating a traffic nightmare in the Buckhead area.
While Georgia Power reported only 290 customers out of electricity in the Peachtree Road area of Buckhead as of about 7:30 p.m., Atlanta police said traffic was snarled on Ga. 400 and Lenox and Cheshire Bridge roads as a result of the outage.
The number of people in the dark was fluctuating wildly as winds whipped through the region, said Lynn Wallace, spokeswoman for Georgia Power.
“The ground is very saturated from all the rain we had, and with winds like this, the gusts are just toppling the trees,” Wallace said. “As soon as the winds subside, you’ll see the numbers go down.”
As of 10 p.m., about 1,700 customers were without power in Woodstock and 360 along West Paces Ferry in metro Atlanta. Another 600 customers were without power in Suwanee.
The majority of service should be restored by midnight, Wallace said.
The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for North and Middle Georgia, in effect until midnight. Winds of 15 to 25 mph gusting to up to 35 mph were predicted.
“The greatest threat for snowfall is in extreme North Georgia, where a winter weather advisory is in effect until 7 a.m.,” Channel 2 meteorologist David Chandley said. “The higher elevations of the mountains, above 2,500 feet, may see up to an inch by morning.”
The Weather Service winter weather advisory is for areas north of a line from Lafayette to Ellijay to Cleveland.
In metro Atlanta on Friday, there should be sunshine and highs in the low to mid-40s, Burns said.
The weekend should be sunny but cool, with highs around 50 and lows in the 20s to low 30s.
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