WEDNESDAY’S WEATHER-TRAFFIC: Cold front to bring more downpours, thunderstorms in the afternoon

After a night of downpours and flooding, residents of North Georgia are waking up to drier conditions. However, that won’t last very long, according to the latest forecast.

By Wednesday afternoon, widespread downpours and storms will drench metro Atlanta, with a 70% chance of rain predicted.

“Take your umbrella. Take your rain jacket. Chances are you’ll need it this afternoon,” Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brian Monahan said.

The morning is off to a relatively dry start with only a few isolated showers across North Georgia. Thick clouds are hanging overhead and temperatures are lingering around 75 degrees.

It’s a stark contrast to the conditions the metro area saw just 12 hours prior on Tuesday, when the clouds opened over Cobb County and let out downpours that caused flooding in Marietta.

Marietta was hit with 4.4 inches of rain, causing storm drains to overflow. In some areas, the water rose so high that cars were partially submerged. Crews worked overnight and into Wednesday morning to pull cars off of the streets after the flooding left them damaged.

“My friend woke up and tried to use her car to go to work, and that’s when she noticed that everything in the car was wet. It’s not cranking or doing anything,” Jermaine Glover, a resident of the Marietta Crossing apartment homes, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A flash flood warning from the National Weather Service remains in effect for Cobb and Fulton counties.

Crews spent hours pulling cars from water on Delk Road after downpours drenched Marietta and caused flooding.

“For now, we are getting a chance to dry out after that heavy rain last night,” Monahan said.

That’ll start to change by lunchtime as a cold front begins moving south through Georgia, bringing wet weather along with it.

Come noon, isolated thunderstorms will begin moving in. While there won’t be a lot of rain between 12 and 1 p.m., the storms will grow in strength as the day progresses. Only five of the day’s 13 daylight hours are expected to be dry, Monahan said.

Temperatures are expected to top off about 85 degrees.

The good news is that in the coming days, we will lose the rain and have better conditions for the weekend.

“We have one more day of wet weather and then it’s going to get a lot better into the weekend,” Monahan said.

Thursday will be partly cloudy with just a 20% chance of rain. By Friday, it’ll be sunny with no chance of precipitation.

Wednesday’s cold front will also cut temperatures for the days that follow. By Thursday morning, we will see low temperatures in the 50s and high temperatures in the low 80s.

Drivers in metro Atlanta should continue to be mindful of wet roads on Wednesday, according to the WSB 24-hour Traffic Center.

In Roswell, Azalea Drive is shut down between Willeo Road and Atlanta Street due to flooding. Drivers should use Marietta Highway as an alternate route.

In south Fulton County, a truck crash is blocking one northbound right lane on I-85 at Jonesboro Road.