Rain clears out overnight

Tomorrow: A 30 percent chance of showers. High: 91

» For a detailed forecast, visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution weather page.

10 p.m.: Isolated showers are possible, but the rain is expected to continue clearing out overnight and stay mostly dry.

6:59 p.m.: Severe thunderstorm warning issued for Coweta County, with expected strong winds, frequent lightning and hail.

6:55 p.m.: Relentless lightning pounding Heard, Douglas and Cobb counties. In the last five minutes, 111 strikes were reported.

6:25 p.m.: Severe thunderstorm warnings issued in parts of Haralson and Carroll counties until 7 p.m.

5 p.m. Though heavy rain and storms passed through the area, thousands of residents in the metro Atlanta area were still without power and Brookhaven's Lynwood Park Recreation Center decided to close at 6:30 p.m. due to a power outage. Gwinnett County police reported no main intersections without working traffic lights, but signal technicians were working to reset traffic lights in other parts of the county.

Gwinnett County firefighters responded to more than 50 calls for service between 12:45 and 3p.m. including reports of wires down, fallen trees, woods/grass fires and reported structure fires. Firefighters found no fire present at any of the to several trees and power lines down in Gwinnett roadways. There were no storm related injuries reported.

2:49 p.m.: Crash reported on Highway 316 at Sugarloaf Parkway

2:43 p.m.: Severe thunderstorm warning issued for Greene County until 3 p.m.

2:30 p.m.: Severe thunderstorm warnings issued for Oglethorpe, Putnam and Madison counties.

2:26 p.m.: Very heavy rain moving across Metro Atlanta. Postpone travel if possible; put headlights on in the rain. Many slow zones reported on the expressways due to the storms.

2:04 p.m.: Traffic lights out in all of downtown Lawrenceville and along Highway 316 at Highway 29. Most of Midtown Atlanta's traffic lights are also reportedly out.

1:57 p.m. Georgia Power reported close to 600 active outages, leaving more than 55,000 people without power as of 1:45 p.m. High winds damaged the Valero Station on Shallowford Road in Marietta.

1:48 p.m.: A weather advisory was issued for Clayton, Coweta, Fayette, Henry, Lamar, Meriwether, Newton, Pike and Spalding counties.

The advisory, the only one still impacting metro areas, will expire at 2:30 p.m. Wind could get up to 50 mph. Also expect frequent lightning and heavy rain, according to the National Weather Service. Seek shelter immediately.

1:42 p.m.: Gwinnett firefighters have responded to trees falling on buildings on Windward Lane, Greenvalley Road and Applewood Drive. Trees were reported down throughout the metro area, especially in Cherokee County.

1:23 p.m.: Severe weather is causing some airport delays, according to Hartsfield-Jackson.

1:18 p.m.: Heavy rain is coming down on Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. There is a 40 percent chance the eastern section of north Georgia will have a severe thunderstorm watch issued as well.

1:13 p.m.: The warning has been dropped for the western part of Coweta County. The eastern part remains under the warning until 1:30 p.m.

1:11 p.m.: There were reports of trees down on Georgia Tech's campus. A transformer is down, so there are some power outages. Fulton County had wind gusts up to 60 mph.

1:08 p.m.: Storms are about 10 minutes away from Peachtree City, where there is currently no warning in effect. But that could change, meteorologist Brad Nitz said. The strongest storms are in Gwinnett and DeKalb counties.

1:07 p.m.: A large tree is down on West Paces Ferry Road near the governor's mansion in the Buckhead area.

1:04 p.m.: The stronger storms were north and west of downtown Monroe, where hail was reported.

1 p.m.: The severe thunderstorm warning has been extended to 1:30 p.m. in Coweta County.

Watch live video of storm progress here.

12:58 p.m.: Winds blew down awnings and knocked signage down at the Valero gas station on Shallowford Road in east Cobb County.

12:52 p.m.: Southbound traffic on the Downtown Connector is at a stand still as the storm blows through, according to Channel 2 Action News.

12:50 p.m.: Coweta County was added to the warning.

12:47 p.m.: Gwinnett and DeKalb counties have been added to the warning.

UPDATE [12:40 p.m.]: DeKalb County has been added to the severe thunderstorm warning. It is now in effect through 1:15 p.m.

ORIGINAL STORY: A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Cobb, Douglas, Fulton and Paulding counties Wednesday.

Downpours had just started to sweep through northeast metro Atlanta when the National Weather Service issued the alert at 12:11 p.m.

The warning, on the heels of storms that led to power outages and flight delays Tuesday, will remain in effect through 1 p.m.

Storms could bring lightning, hail and 40 mph wind gusts. They could also lead to flooding.

People are asked to move to interior rooms on the lowest floors of buildings.

A tree had already knocked down power lines and damaged an SUV on North Highland Avenue in northeast Atlanta by noon, according to Channel 2 Action News.

Rain will become more widespread and continue through the afternoon, holding temperatures in the 80s.

Temperatures were 87 degrees in Atlanta, 78 degrees in Blairsville and 86 degrees in Griffin just before 12:10 p.m.

» For updated traffic information, listen to News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB and follow @ajcwsbtraffic on Twitter.