ATLANTA FORECAST
Wednesday: High: 70
Wednesday night: Low: 51
Thursday: High: 57
» For a detailed forecast, visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution weather page.
Traffic is already heavy around metro Atlanta as the evening commute begins, but downtown traffic should increase even more when the Hawks play their home opener against the Dallas Mavericks at 7 p.m.
The roads near State Farm Arena should be packed ahead of the game, and the arena tweeted that fans might want to arrive early because a road race will close parts of Centennial Park Drive before the game.
Music fans might also flock to the game to see the Zac Brown Band perform the national anthem and rapper Future perform both the halftime and postgame show.
RELATED: Zac Brown Band to perform national anthem at Hawks season opener
On the Perimeter, two eastbound lanes are blocked near Flat Shoals Road, and delays span back about seven miles, according to the WSB 24-hour Traffic Center. It's recommended to take I-20 East as an alternative.
A crash has blocked most of South Cobb Drive near Austell Road, and delays are expected to increase, according to the Traffic Center.
Cobb County police said the wreck killed one person, and they are at the scene investigating. A timeline for when the road will reopen was not provided.
MORE: 1 dead, 1 taken to hospital after wreck in Cobb
There are also plenty of construction crews at work this afternoon, which is causing minor slowdowns, the Traffic Center reported. Delays are thinning on I-285 North in Cobb County at Atlanta Road where crews are in a left lane.
North Georgia is enjoying another sunny day with temperatures reaching the low 70s before the remnants of Hurricane Willa make their way into the state, according to Channel 2 Action News. It’s currently 72 degrees, which is two degrees warmer than the predicted high.
Willa has dissipated, and what’s left of the storm is moving northeast across Mexico, the National Hurricane Center reported.
“All this moisture that’s here is going to be picked up, trucked right along Texas, and move along the Gulf Coast,” Channel 2 meteorologist Karen Minton said. “That’s going to end up bringing some (moisture) to us as well.”
Light rain and drizzle are expected to begin in Georgia on Thursday afternoon and stick around through Friday.
“High pressure that’s been dominating us is moving off the East Coast today, bringing in some easterly winds, eventually, at the surface,” Minton said. “That’s going to start (Thursday).”
With moisture from Willa and a wedge of cool air in place over the Appalachians, she said metro Atlanta should stay in the 50s to end the work week. Thursday has a 40 percent chance of light rain in the afternoon, and Friday has an 80 percent chance of cool, patchy rain.
The rain should move out in time for a partly cloudy weekend.
“Over the weekend, right now it looks mainly dry, probably about a 10 to 20 percent chance for showers,” she said.
» For updated traffic information, listen to News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB and follow @ajcwsbtraffic on Twitter.
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