WEATHER-TRAFFIC: Perimeter problems persist on hot spring afternoon

The Perimeter is having a rough evening commute, especially on the Northside.

The evening commute began with outer loop lanes blocked in Cobb and DeKalb counties, and even though all lanes have reopened, the interstate was never given time to recover, according to the WSB 24-hour Traffic Center. From Bolton Road in Fulton County to Chamblee Dunwoody Road in DeKalb, traffic is rarely moving faster than 25 mph.

North Fulton County drivers have their own problems to deal with.

Road repairs continue on Holcomb Bridge Road between Roswell and Woodstock after a water main break in the westbound lanes past Alpharetta Highway. A right lane is now open going west, but drivers should continue to use Houze Road, according to the Traffic Center.

Also, a wreck on Ga. 400 near Old Milton Road gridlocked northbound traffic for nearly 30 minutes during the evening commute, the Traffic Center reported. Moderate delays linger.

Following President Donald Trump’s speech at a summit on the opioid crisis downtown, traffic has recovered on the southbound Downtown Connector, the Traffic Center reported. All southbound lanes were briefly blocked around 2:45 p.m. to allow his motorcade to travel back to the Atlanta airport.

North Georgia will follow the last few days of beautiful weather with another great afternoon Wednesday, according to Channel 2 Action News.

Temperatures have topped 80 degrees and should reach a high of 84 later this afternoon. That’s about 10 degrees above the average temperature for this time of year, Channel 2 meteorologist Brian Monahan said.

“It’s just a plain old nice day out there,” he said.

It will be a dry afternoon, according to Channel 2.

“There will be some more clouds around, but from these clouds there’s not going to be any rain,” Monahan said. “These are way up above 15,000-20,000 feet, so no threat of any rain today.”

Wednesday night should also be dry, he said. A front back to the west will eventually bring some rain, but Monahan said that’s not until late Thursday night and early Friday morning.

Ahead of the rain, he expects temperatures to stay warm but humidity to increase.

After several days without an accurate pollen count, the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma organization is reporting pollen levels in the high range. The count for Wednesday is 139 pollen particles per cubic meter of air, which Monahan said is much better than a couple of weeks ago.

Tree pollen is high, and grass pollen is in the low to moderate range.

Rain moving in for the end of the week could help to drive numbers down even further. There could be a few showers on the Westside by 11 p.m. Thursday, Monahan said.

“Your morning commute Friday, it’s going to be wet,” he said. “It’s going to be nothing like we saw last Friday with the storms and severe weather, but there is going to be some wet weather, wet pavement.”

Most of North Georgia is expected to pick up a half-inch of rain to finish off the work week, according to Channel 2. Things should dry out through the day on Friday as an area of low pressure moves away from the state.

“We go from dry weather and 84 (Wednesday) to 72 with some of those showers around on Friday, but behind it it’s going to be really nice on the weekend.”

Weekend highs are forecast in the upper 70s, and there is only a slight chance of rain on Sunday, according to Channel 2.