Scattered showers, punctuated by a couple of strong thunderstorms, moved across the northern suburbs Thursday night and early Friday, and forecasters are predicting a good dousing metro-wide later in the day on Friday to help wash Atlanta's record-breaking pollen out of the air.
The rain was already having a positive effect on Atlanta's pollen count, which had soared above 9,000 earlier in the week. Friday's count, while still in the extremely high range, was down to 1,009.
There were scattered reports of minor damage from Thursday night's storms, including trees blown down in the Marietta area. One tree fell onto a car in a subdivision off Whitlock Avenue west of downtown Marietta. No injuries were reported.
Rainfall totals from the overnight storms were generally light, and mostly confined to the northern suburbs. Totals through 5 a.m. included .17 inch in Marietta, .07 inch in Dunwoody and .06 inch in Alpharetta. The National Weather Service reported no rain through 5 a.m. in Chamblee, Peachtree City and at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Karen Minton predicted that rainfall totals later in the day on Friday will be in the one-half to 1 inch range across metro Atlanta.
At 9:30 a.m., Weather Service radar showed a broad area of moderate rain closing in on metro Atlanta from the southwest.
Minton said the chance of rain is 100 percent on Friday, decreasing to 30 percent on Saturday. Sunday should be mostly sunny but windy, she said.
Afternoon highs this weekend will be in the low to mid-70s, with overnight lows in the 50s.
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