WEATHER-TRAFFIC UPDATE: Atlanta hits 80 as ‘awful’ delays continue on Northside

At the same time, delays caused by a gas leak in Dunwoody are taking time to dissipate. According to the city, a contractor hit a gas main near the intersection of Mt. Vernon Road and Vermack Road, which shut down all but one lane of Mt. Vernon Road and blocked Manhasset road at St. Luke’s Presbyterian.

The leak was capped, and both roads were reopened a little after 5 p.m., Dunwoody police said in a tweet.

This comes after a fiery crash shut down the inner loop at New Northside Drive for several hours, marring the morning commute for Fulton and Cobb counties. At lunchtime, a new crash blocked multiple lanes on the outer loop past Northside Drive and Powers Ferry Road, according to the WSB 24-hour Traffic Center.

RELATED: I-285 reopens in DeKalb, north Fulton

Downtown traffic isn’t breezy, either. A northbound lane of the Downtown Connector is blocked by a crash near 17th Street, the Traffic Center reported.

Halfway through the week, North Georgia is finally starting to warm back up.

After a weekend cold front plunged morning lows into the 30s and 40s for the start of the week, most of North Georgia woke up to temperatures in the upper 40s and 50s Wednesday, according to Channel 2 Action News. Temps broke 80 degrees at 5 p.m., which is a degree shy of the predicted high.

“It is going to feel more like a mid-May afternoon today,” Channel 2 meteorologist Brian Monahan said.

That’s well above the average temperature of 73 degrees for this time of year.

Though there will be a few more mid- and high-level clouds Wednesday ahead of another weather-making cold front, Monahan said they won’t stop North Georgia from warming up. The clouds should make for “a beautiful sunset,” he said.

Monahan said he is tracking North Georgia’s next chance for thunderstorms Friday morning, but the weather should be mild the rest of Wednesday and Thursday.

Even with all the sunshine and dry weather, the pollen count keeps dropping this week, Monahan said. The count hit a season high of 6,575 on Saturday and has fallen to 306 particles per cubic meter of air for Wednesday. While that is still considered high, Monahan said the downward trend means “we are past the peak of this year’s pollen season.”

While there is a chance for a shower Thursday afternoon and evening, Monahan said late Thursday night is the time to be weather aware.

“I really wish this forecast was changing. It’s not,” he said. “There’s going to be rain and storms coming in late Thursday night. In fact, the (Friday) morning commute, whether you get storms in your neighborhood or not, it is going to be wet, kind of messy, kind of soggy across North Georgia.”

Monahan said Thursday’s overnight storms will resemble the system that moved through the region Sunday.

“The one thing working in our favor, though, because of the morning timeline, is a little less energy for these storms to work with,” he said.

There is still a threat of gusty winds, large hail and a low chance of an isolated, brief spin-up tornado, according to Channel 2.

As the cold front moves through the state Friday morning and into the afternoon, he said the rain will start to wind down and the storm chance decreases. There’s a 90 percent chance of storms early in the day.

Temperatures are forecast to take a dive on the other side of the front. Atlanta is not expected to get out of the 60s on Friday afternoon, and Saturday’s high won’t leave the 50s, according to Channel 2.

There is a 30 percent chance of rain Saturday, but Monahan said temperatures should rebound to the mid-70s on Easter Sunday with lots of sunshine.

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

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

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