A strong storm system is moving through the central United States today, and it is pushing a line of heavy rain and thunderstorms through the Southeast states.
The line of storms will move through North Georgia and Metro Atlanta early Monday morning, bringing the threat of severe weather to the region.
Timing the Storms
Overall, the main window for severe weather is 2am through 9am Monday. The animation below illustrates the Futurecast High Resolution Model Radar for tomorrow morning.
Model data indicates the line of storms will approach northwest Georgia between 2am and 4am.
The line of storms will quickly move through western Metro Atlanta between 4am and 6am. I will then sweep through the downtown Atlanta area during the 6am hour, and continue to push through the eastern Metro counties between 7am and 9am.
Impacts From the Storms
These severe storms will be capable of the following:
- Wind gusts 60+ mph (strong enough to knock down trees and powerlines)
- Frequent lightning (home or office fire possible)
- Tornadoes are also possible, some may be “quick” and stay on the ground for 5-20 minutes but produce considerable damage
Damaging Wind Threat
The line of thunderstorms will be capable of widespread straight-line wind gusts as high as 60-70 mph, which is strong enough to knock down trees and powerlines.
Due to the linear nature of the storms, the wind damage could be quite widespread where the strongest storms move through.
Lightning Threat
Frequent lightning will also be a concern, which could spark building fires early Monday morning.
A Few Tornadoes Possible
The atmosphere ahead of the storms will feature enough wind shear to allow tornadoes to form early Monday morning. Wind shear occurs when winds change direction and/or speed from the ground to higher up in the atmosphere. The greater the wind shear, the greater chance for tornadoes to form, as this is the actual forcing mechanism that causes storms to spin.
The image below shows illustrates the Futurecast Storm Relative Helicity from the ground to 1 kilometer in the sky (roughly half a mile), which is a measure of wind shear in the atmosphere. Values above 100 m²/s² are considered conducive for tornadoes to form.
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