Thunderstorms were predicted to be “a virtual certainty” Tuesday as Tropical Depression Ida rolled into North Georgia, Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brad Nitz said, but metro Atlanta escaped the damaging weather some feared.
Heavy downpours from Ida’s outer rain bands inundated west Georgia before moving into the western Atlanta suburbs around 11 a.m. Three to four inches of rain fell in some areas in the morning hours alone, Nitz said.
The only severe weather warning to touch the metro Area was a flash flood watch in northwestern Cobb County which was canceled in the mid-afternoon, Channel 2 Chief Meteorologist Glenn Burns said.
“Well today, not one tornado warning, not a single severe thunderstorm warning... We really escaped this one,” Burns said.
Tuesday morning, Nitz warned that severe thunderstorms would be embedded within Ida’s rain bands, and any could produce a tornado. Those storms made their presence felt further south in Georgia, where several counties saw evening tornado warnings, including Lamar, Monroe, Upson, Calhoun, Randolph and Terrell.
In metro Atlanta, the risks of heavy rain and flooding were highest, though experts monitored a moderate risk of tornadoes throughout the evening. A flash flood watch in effect Tuesday was expanded to include counties west of I-20, according to the National Weather Service.
According to Burns, the metro area is expected to dry out from west to east overnight.
“As we get toward 11 o’clock tonight, we should be mostly dry across northern Georgia,” Burns said. Wednesday will be cooler than average, with a high in the low- to mid-80s, with less cloud cover and just a 10% chance of rain. North Georgia is looking to string together multiple dry and sunny days through Thursday and Friday, according to the latest forecast.
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