Atlantans can look forward to warm and mostly calm weather through the weekend, but should brace themselves for more storms next week.
With years of drought and the recent rains, falling trees are always a threat.
A cold front is expected to arrive Monday, and when it hits the warm air over Georgia, it will likely result in unstable weather, said Channel 2 Action News chief meterologist Glenn Burns.
"I would imagine we're going to see some strong thunderstorms," Burns told the AJC Thursday.
The storm prediction for Monday is more benign than the forecast for additional storms later in the week. None of those events should pack the punch of Tuesday's powerhouse, which leveled trees and knocked out power across Georgia.
Two tornadoes were confirmed in Gilmer County and one in Butts County, Burns said. There were no tornadoes in Atlanta, where the wind blew in a straight line. But it was a powerful wind, reaching 70-m.p.h., Burns said.
Winds at 40 m.p.h. can topple trees, which explains why so much of the metro area went dark when an unususally large number of falling trees pulled down power lines.
The destruction meant around-the-clock work for Georgia Power crews. There were 70 broken power poles and 117 sections of power lines pulled down in Atlanta, according to the power company.
"This was probably one of the most significant storms we've had in several years," said Lynn Wallace, a spokeswoman for Georgia Power. "This was the most outages we've seen from a storm in quite a long time."
Wallace blamed both the strength of the storm and the condition of the trees. Several years of drought weakened root systems, and several weeks of rain preceded the violent storm, loosening the soil.
Wallace said the worst damage occurred on metro Atlanta's east side, in the Decatur and Tucker areas, "because there are so many trees there."
A tree expert told the AJC that the decade-long drought was a primary culprit, but so is the age of trees, especially in older neighborhoods. The expert, arborist Ed Macie, also said urban conditions weaken trees. Crews cut roots while installing fiber optic cables, and impermeable sidewalks and streets cover tree roots.
"Urban trees are challenged from the get-go," Macie said. But Macie, who was out of town during Tuesday's storm, also said strong enough winds will knock down any tree, no matter its condition.
"If the weather is as severe as people say it was," he said, "it doesn't matter how healthy the trees are."
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