The cold front that touched off Monday’s round of deadly severe thunderstorms will bring much cooler temperatures to the state, particularly at night, and there’s even a chance of snow later this week across metro Atlanta.
Skies will be sunny Tuesday and Wednesday, but the National Weather Service is forecasting a 40 percent chance of snow or sleet Thursday night and early Friday, before the precipitation changes over to all rain later in the day on Friday.
No accumulation is expected, except for a dusting of snow across the higher mountain peaks of far north Georgia.
Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Karen Minton said afternoon highs will be in the mid-60s Tuesday, low 60s Wednesday, mid-50s Thursday and low 50s Friday and Saturday.
Overnight lows will be in the low 40s Tuesday night, but in the low to mid-30s Wednesday and Thursday nights, Minton said.
Schools were closed Tuesday in Polk, Pike and Heard counties in the wake of Monday’s storms, which ripped through the metro area during the afternoon and evening, dumping rain, hail and bringing intense winds.
Authorities in Polk County northwest of Atlanta confirmed one fatality in the storms.
Polk County Coroner Trey Litesey told the Rome News-Tribune that James Agan of Rome died when a tree toppled onto his car on Old Highway 100 between Cave Spring and Cedartown.
The Weather Service issued tornado warnings for several counties in metro Atlanta and northwest Georgia Monday evening. But shortly before 7 p.m., most of the warnings were lifted.
The storms rolled in from northwest Georgia, barrelling through western metro counties before rolling across downtown Atlanta and into southern metro area.
Lightning sparked a house fire in Buford, according to Capt. Tommy Rutledge with the Gwinnett County fire department. A woman was home at the time, but was not injured, Rutledge said. No injuries were reported in the metro area.
One person was killed in a wreck in Pike County, about an hour south of downtown Atlanta, but it was not immediately known if the wreck was weather-related.
Shortly before 9 p.m., about 73,000 Georgia Power customers were without electricity, the utility said. About 6,700 customers in metro Atlanta were without power, mostly on the south side of the city.
Thunderstorms dumped rain and hail, some as big as 2 inches in diameter, in western Georgia counties, according to Glenn Burns, chief meteorologist for Channel 2 Action News.
Baseball-sized hail was being reported in Coweta County, according to Meteorologist David Chandley, also with Channel 2. Trees and power lines were reported down throughout the metro area.
A ground stop was temporarily in effect at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, according to the FAA. Flights arriving and departing were experiencing delays of more than an hour.
Floyd County reported damage and injuries in the south part of the county, along Rockmart Highway and U.S. 27, the Rome News-Tribune reported.
A convenience store in the Silver Creek community of southern Floyd county was destroyed by the storm. Channel 2 reported that there were no injuries to the five people that were inside the store when the storm hit.
Rainfall totals from Monday’s storms were generally under an inch. Atlanta’s official rain gauge at the airport recorded .86 inch.
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