Weekly Weather Briefing - 3/28/13

Hello. This is Meteorologist Steve Nelson with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City with the weekly weather briefing for Thursday, March 28th. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for Spring to begin. Many areas in north Georgia saw light snow and snow flurries last Monday through Tuesday. Areawide, temperatures were well below normal and with gusty north winds, it felt more like January than late March. In fact, our records show that unless we get a drastic warmup in the next 3 days, the average temperature for March at Atlanta will be *colder* than the average temperature in January! Some areas saw up to an inch or so of snow cover roads. Schools were closed Tuesday in Fannin, Towns and Union counties and nearby counties delayed school for 2 hours. Just goes to show that even in Spring, Georgia can see accumulating snow. Precipitation during the last week wasn’t too heavy, but over the last two weeks, we’ve received about one and a half to twice the normal amount of precipitation in the state. This rainfall continues to bring relief to our long-term drought. The latest drought monitor graphic shows that only a small part of central and eastcentral Georgia remains in the category 1 or moderate drought. At Lake Lanier near Gainesville, almost 20 inches of rain has fallen since October 1st, almost 14 inches of that has occurred just since Christmas. The result of that precipitation is a nice, steady rise in the levels at Lake Lanier. Since mid-December when the level was around 1056 ft, the level has risen about 13 feet and is near full pool for this time of year. The outlook for the next several days is good with at least one opportunity for more rain. This rainfall forecast from the NWS Weather Prediction Center shows rain may move into parts of north and west Georgia late Saturday. As the storm system moves through on Sunday and Monday, additional rainfall up to an inch is likely across the area. Fortunately, instability is not expected to be that high when the storm system moves through. These charts show that no organized severe storms are expected in the area through next week. The green shaded area near the central gulf coast indicates that general, non-severe thunderstorms are expected on Friday and Saturday. We could see a few elevated storms on Sunday and Monday, but again no severe weather is expected. Besides the rain, a warming trend will bring our temperatures closer to normal levels for this time of year. As you can see on these examples, the forecast for parts of middle Georgia, for instance, calls for temperatures to reach the upper 60s this weekend and on Monday. You can always get the latest detailed forecast for any location by clicking on the map on our website, weather.gov/atlanta. Here’s a closer look at what the high temperatures may look like on Monday, especially if we can get some good sunshine. So in summary, temperatures should return to near normal levels this weekend and much of next week. Clouds will increase on Saturday with increasing rain chances spreading from northwest to southeast through the weekend. The most likely time for rain will be Saturday night and Sunday. A few thunderstorms will also be possible, but no severe weather is expected at this time. Thanks for listening y’all and have a great rest of the week and weekend!