Heavy rain is in the cards for Thursday with a chance for thunderstorms and flooding, forecasters said.
And the deluge has the area flirting with record-setting rainfall totals.
“It’s going to be another one of those days that we could get some very heavy downpours, and that could lead to some flooding,” Severe Weather Team 2 Meteorologist Karen Minton said.
The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch for much of the metro Atlanta area beginning at 10 a.m. and running through late Thursday night.
“As some of these storms turn into thunderstorms, some may turn severe this afternoon as they did yesterday,” Minton said. “By 7 o’clock tonight dryer air (will be) coming in here.”
With a string of rainy days stretching back more than a week, Minton said ground saturated by precipitation has become susceptible to flooding.
“It only takes an inch,” she said. “But in some areas we could see between one inch and three inches of rainfall.”
Forecasters warn of the risk of trees falling because increased moisture has softened and weakened the soil.
High temperatures will remain in the mid-80s through Monday, and the chance for rain will drop from 80 percent on Thursday to 20 percent on Friday and Saturday.
This time last year, Atlanta had received about half the rainfall we’ve seen in 2013, according to the National Weather Service’s Rainfall Scorecard. Atlanta received 37.03 inches in 2012 — roughly four inches shy of 2013’s total to date.
And the more than 41 inches of rain on record this year is on pace with the wettest year — 1948, when the area logged 42 inches of precipitation by this time.
Even Seattle, known for its rainy disposition, can find itself in some regards green with envy.
Atlanta has more than doubled the Emerald City’s rainfall total this year — as of this week, Seattle annual precipitation count is 18.05 inches.
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