The morning news for the last few days has brought reports of Gwinnett Fire being called out to douse numerous fires caused by lightning strikes, or to render assistance to property owners with fallen trees caused by wind damage. Even the Gwinnett Daily Post was forced to a late printing due to a power failure caused by an early morning storm.

Each evening, I’ve kept an eye on the radar, hoping for some drought relief. Big globs of red move across the screen, theoretically indicating an intense storm and strong rainfall. But, by the time the blotches got to Gwinnett, they seemed to miraculously disappear, bringing some wind and a drop in temperatures, but no rain. (Well, maybe a hundredth of an inch or so–hardly enough to count.)

So, in the over two weeks between July 14th and this morning, I’ve only recorded a third of an inch of rain, despite several storms passing through. I’ve talked to several Gwinnettians who say that they got some rain from the recent storms. Alpharetta got .45 inches Sunday night, and a total of .81 inches since the 14th. In Johns Creek the situation has been similar, with .71 inches since the 14th, half of with fell on Sunday. But, Peachtree DeKalb has had only .3 inches and Charlie Brown field recorded .95 inches. They have gotten plenty of rain in Gainesville, with 3.29 inches since July 14 and Hartsfield Airport is well over July normal rain, with 6.27 inches since the first of the month, and 1.45 inches since the 14th.

With thunderstorm season in full swing, rainfall amounts can vary widely over relatively short distances. Popup storms can bring rain to an isolated area–indeed a popup storm over South Gwinnett brought .08 inches of rain to my house tonight, more than a quarter of what I’ve gotten in the last two weeks, but not enough to satisfy my thirsty yard. The forecast calls for more widespread rain on Friday. All I can do is hope that it again doesn’t avoid my neighborhood.

Dolly is getting ready to land on the US coastline at the Texas/Mexico border, near the mouth of the Rio Grande. The image below, taken at 9:15 on Wednesday clearly shows the hurricane’s eye:

She will be the first hurricane to affect the US coastline this year, and is likely to cause intense flooding along the Rio Grande valley. Maximum winds have reached 95 MPH, and the storm is likely to be border Category 2 when landfall occurs late this morning. Most areas will get 6-10 inches of rain with over a foot of precipitation in some locations.

Moist tropical air from Dolly is affecting Georgia, and was responsible for many of yesterday’s thunderstorms. As usual, amounts varied widely, with 1.19 inches in Marietta, .29 inches at Peachtree DeKalb, .28 inches at my Lawrenceville weather station and only .16 inches at Hartsfield airport. Athens remained dry.

Even though the rain amounts were less than what one might have hoped for in a drought, the sudden drop in temperatures–eight degrees in 11 minutes here–very gusty winds and at least five tornado warnings issued in Gwinnett County made it an interesting evening. Look for more of the same this afternoon as a cold front passes through.

I received a nice note from a blog reader in northeast Cobb county reporting that they got quite a bit of rain over the last week. He estimated that about ten inches had fallen where he lives. Well, 10 inches would be quite a lot of rainfall — more like what we would see as the result of tropical weather, and looking at some of the estimated precipitation data from the weather service, they don’t have anything like that reported. That being said, it looks like Marietta did have the highest amount of rainfall over the last week.

From July 7th through yesterday, here are the rainfall totals for some metro Atlanta locations:
Athens: 2.79 inches
Atlanta: 3.91 inches
Gainesville: 1.92 inches
Marietta: 4.18 inches
Chamblee (Peachtree DeKalb): 2 inches
West Atlanta (Charlie Brown): 1.83 inches

For the month of July so far, here are some totals:
Athens: 3.31 inches
Atlanta: 4.82 inches
Allatoona Dam: 6.07 inches
Alpharetta: 3.1 inches
Ball Ground: 5.55 inches
Carrollton: 1.52 inches
Gainesville: 1.92 inches
Helen: 4.45 Inches

Here in Lawrenceville, I’ve recorded 2.03 inches for July to date. So, it’s fair to assume that locations in the northwest got more rain than did those on the east or south of Atlanta. July is typically the rainiest month on average for Atlanta, with 5.12 inches in a typical year. However, the capriciousness of thunderstorms means that rainfall amounts can vary widely, even over a relatively small area.

We probably won’t have to worry too much about rain for the next few days. Behind the cold front that pushed through last night is much drier air, and you’ll see low humidity and dew points for the next few days. That also means cooler evening temperatures, and no weather problems for the primary election on Tuesday.

This weekend’s thunderstorms didn’t bring much drought relief to Gwinnett county, despite the tempting red splotches on the radar all around. Saturday morning brought less than a tenth of an inch at my house, and then nothing for the rest of the weekend.

Other locations did see a reasonable amount of precipitation, though. A storm passing through early Sunday morning and some afternoon rainfall brought .78 inches of rain to Covington–the most rain recorded in North Georgia on Sunday. Meanwhile rainfall amounts varied a lot, even at relatively close distances. Marietta recorded .73 inches on Sunday, while nearby Charlie Brown Airport in Atlanta got not a drop. In Cartersville, they had a quarter of an inch, while Rome received only trace precipitation. Atlanta, which has recorded a scant .23 inches of rain for all of June ended Sunday with only 1/100 of an inch of rain.

The weather over the last week or so has featured an upper level trough over the east coast that has tended to keep tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico away. Thus dew points have been relatively low, making it harder to generate thunderstorms. The rain we’ve had has been caused by small disturbances traveling on the edge of the trough. That is likely to change later in the week, as the trough moves out and moist air returns. However after this evening, we’re not likely to have a good chance for precipitation until the weekend.

The last 24 hours have brought perhaps the most significant severe weather to North Georgia since the Dunwoody tornadoes back in April, 1998.

National Weather Service officials said that a F2 tornado touched down at Simpson Road and Burbank Drive just west of the Georgia dome at 9:38 PM Friday night. The 200 yard wide twister traveled through downtown Atlanta and proceeded about six miles, until it ended at Braeburn and Josephine Roads in DeKalb County.

There was extensive damage to the Georgia Dome, where viewers of the SEC Basketball tournament were surprised when things began to sway. Additional damage was reported throughout downtown, including the CNN building and Centennial Olympic Park. Fortunately, no one was killed in the evening storm. You can read about the storm here, here and here.

It was the first time on record that a tornado touched down in downtown Atlanta.

This was just the opener for an Ides of March repeat on Saturday that brought two additional rounds of storms. The first passed through the area before daybreak, bringing rain and thunder, but no tornado reports. The second round started around 1 PM, and brought tornado reports from Rome to Athens as several additional storms rolled through, including a second round of severe weather in downtown Atlanta. Take a look at the damage reports from across the state.

The worst of the Saturday afternoon storms hit north of Atlanta, moving through Floyd, Cherokee, Hall counties. Where I’m at, between Lawrenceville and Lilburn, the afternoon brought two hundredths of an inch of rain, much less hail and tornadoes, even as I watched the storm move through on TV and turned off the repeated alerts on my weather radio. Radar estimated that upwards of four inches of rain fell on the hardest hit areas north of the city, which includes the Lake Lanier basin, so maybe that’s the silver lining to this.

Winds are already picking up as the cold front associated with the low pressure system that caused all this enters Georgia. There will be another chance of a storm as the front passes through. Then all will be calm again for a few days, until the next round of storms arrives, perhaps on Wednesday.

For those of you interested in following storms, there are several resources on this site that will help you. The first is the Severe Weather Outlook, which describes the risk of storms for the next few days. The Mesoscale Discussions page provides information about storms that the weather service is concerned about. The Watches and Warnings page lists current weather hazards across the country, although you can zoom in to the state or even local level to read the warning text. And, the Storm Reports page lists all reported damage and severe weather over the last 4, 12 or 24 hours nationally or by state.

How did the storm affect you? Let everyone know by making a comment below.

This afternoon’s thunderstorms were responsible for hail, damaging winds and even a few tornadoes to Georgia, but on the upside, they brought needed rain as well.  In advance of an approaching cold front, the storms fired up from west to east, with the worst of the storms affecting the Atlanta area between 5 and 6 PM.

Looking at the Georgia storm reports,  there were reports of damaging winds bringing down power lines and trees in west Georgia, tornado spottings in southwest Georgia and quarter inch hail.  In metro Atlanta, some minor flooding was reported in Tucker, and there were tornado warnings issued for Fulton and Gwinnett counties based on radar soundings, however no tornadoes were reported in the metro area.

The storm did bring some needed rain to the area.  As of 7:30 PM, here are some reported rain amounts:

Alpharetta: 1.18 inches
Johns Creek: 1.18 inches
Dunwoody: 1.21 inches
Gainesville: 1.17 inches
Lawrenceville:  0.77 inches
Dahlonega: 0.98 inches
Jonesboro: 0.36 inches
Dallas: 1.01 inches

The good news is that the heaviest rains occurred on the north side of the metro area, and should add to the runoff into lakes Lanier and Allatoona. With the cold front pushing in, any additional rainfall tonight will be light.  And, with more rain predicted for the end of the week, we might be able to make a dent in the slow refilling of the lakes.

The massive cool down predicted for the weekend, with temperatures anywhere between 20 and 30 degrees cooler than they have been, has set up a high possibility of thunderstorms, hail, and possible tornadoes for Friday afternoon, and into early Saturday morning.

In an early morning severe weather outlook, the Storm Prediction Center predicted the greatest likelihood of severe storms in most of Alabama and western Georgia, stretching north through Tennessee and Kentucky.

At 1:10 PM, the Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch for a diagonal area in middle Georgia, with the top of the warning area including Gwinnett. Shortly before 1 PM, the leading edge of the front was approaching the Atlanta metro area, and several severe thunderstorm warnings had been issued for counties in north and west Atlanta metro, although none yet in Gwinnett.

A severe thunderstorm warning issued for Hall County shortly after 1 PM predicted nickel size hail, however in my section of Gwinnett, all I say was some significant winds and about half an inch of rain.

The watch area proved accurate, with reports of penny size hail north of Columbus, and in Vienna, and 1.75 inch hail in Cordele. As of 9 PM, the second wave of the storm was beginning to pass through the area, prompting the weather service to issue another severe thunderstorm watch until midnight for counties in northwest Georgia and Eastern Tennessee.

While I wouldn’t be surprised to see some additional rain overnight, I think that the more than 20 degree drop in temperatures immediately after the first round of storms will minimize any possible really severe weather.

Updated at 9:00 PM to reflect current conditions.

A low over northern Mississippi moved eastward on Easter Sunday, bringing over 3 inches of rain to the Lawrenceville area, and reports of flooding and hail to North and middle Georgia, and several tornado reports in the Montgomery, Alabama area.

The system brought severe thunderstorm warnings to our south Easter Morning, primarily south of Columbus, and into Americus. An initial tornado watch was issued until 11 AM south of Columbus, and stretching across the Florida panhandle. At 10:35 AM, a new watch was issued covering most of South Georgia, along a line from Columbus, to Macon to Savannah, then south to Brunswick, and back west along the Florida panhandle. This watch was in effect until 6 PM.

At 12:45 PM, the Weather Service added a new watch which includes metro Atlanta and Gwinnett County, also until 6PM. The watch area covered Hall, Barrow, and Walton Counties, west back through most of Alabama.

As of 4:30 PM, a number of severe thunderstorm warnings were issued, mostly to the north and west of Gwinnett, including in Cobb, Cherokee, Dawson, Habersham, and Rabun counties. Slightly over 4 tenths of an inch of rain fell through 5:45 PM, with some lightning, but nothing severe.

At 5:45 PM, with the continued threat of severe weather as the cold front now in Alabama moving our way through the eventing, the NWS issued a new tornado watch, covering an area from Birmingham east to Athens, and from the Tennessee border south to the Florida Panhandle. This watch was in effect until 1:00 AM.

As od 7:45 PM, a line of rain and thunderstorms brought lightning and a bit of hail to our area. I recorded about 1 1/2 inches of rain between 7 and 8 PM. Several areas in middle Georgia, including Cochran, Eastman and Cordele reported flash flooding, while 1 inch hail was reported earlier in the afternoon in Jasper and Canton, in Northwest Georgia.

Rain and storms continued through about midnight, as the cold front finally overtook our area. Temperatures dropped by about 10 degrees between midnight and 2 AM, as the winds shifted to the west, and dewpoints dropped into the 40s.

Initial forecasts of highs in the upper 70s were scaled back to around 70 degrees about noontime, and even this proved to be too optimistic. Temperatures stubbornly remained at about 59 degrees throughout the day, and winds continued out of the east, a result of a wedge situation that didn’t seem to be lifting at all. These factors contributed to an overall less severe weather event in Metro Atlanta.

This post was originally published at 7:30 AM on 3/27/05, and was updated several times to reflect the progress of the storm.

Just in time for severe weather awareness week, North Georgia received its first major round of thunderstorms for the season on Monday, February 21st.

About noon, a severe thunderstorm warning was sounded for counties in northwest Georgia. By shortly after 1 PM, a severe thunderstorm was spotted in the Lilburn area, and an additional warning was issued shortly after 1:35 for Gwinnett, Walton, and Barrow counties, with storms located in Tucker and Loganville. A large area from Alabama, through 58 counties in north Georgia, and into South Carolina was put under a severe thunderstorm watch until 7PM.

A second wave of thunderstorms crossed North Gwinnett around 6:30, with hail the size of golf balls predicted from north of Duluth east to Buford and Sugar Hill. Shortly before 7PM an additional warning was issued for DeKalb and Gwinnett Counties until 7:45, again with predictions of golf ball size hail through Lilburn and Lawrenceville. As of 7:15, I was observing hail the size of peas outside my house (and hoping the hood of the truck wasn’t going to become damaged). By about 7:30 that phase of the storm had passed through the area. At 7:50, an additional warning was issued for Gwinnett until 8:15.

Due to the continuing presence of the storm, a second watch that included 67 Georgia counties, many further south than the first watch, was put into effect until 2 AM Tuesday. This map shows the size of the second watch, and radar in the area as of about 7:00 PM:

(Courtesy of the National Weather Service.)

Damage reports from the storm include 1 inch hail reported in Snellville and Grayson around 1:30 PM, 2 inch hail in Rome and Canton around 5:30 PM, and 1.75 inch hail around 7:30 PM in Winder. Although some of these reports were from the public, trained spotters reported 1.75 inch hail in Lilburn and Snellville between 7:20 and 7:50 PM.

Rain caused by the storms prompted flood warnings in northwest Georgia, and along the Etowah river near Dawsonville. By 8:45, enough rain had fallen in Gwinnett to issue a generalized flood warning for the county. Both the Big Creek in Alpharetta and the Chattahoochee near Vinings were close to flood stage on Tuesday morning.

Here we measured 1.96 inches of rain on Monday, and a total of 2.41 inches of rain for the storm which began on Sunday. The rain in the last 24 hours measures more than a third of the 6.16 inches so far this year.

This post was originally published at 1:30PM on 2/21/05, and has been updated several times to reflect current conditions.