Easter Brings Severe Weather to North Georgia
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.
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