Heavy rain brings down trees; more headed our way

ATLANTA — Some isolated showers continue to move through north Georgia Tuesday evening, but the heaviest of the rain has moved out of the area for the day.

However, more rain is on the way for Wednesday.

Severe Weather Team 2 is tracking the timing of showers for your area on Channel 2 Action News.

A flash flood watch is in effect for most of metro Atlanta until 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Impacts could include flooding of low-lying areas and poor-drainage areas.

“We do expect another cold front to arrive in north Georgia tomorrow morning, first in northwestern Georgia,” said Severe Weather Team 2 chief meteorologist Glenn Burns.

Burns said the morning commute should be clear of any heavy rain or storms, but by noontime, showers will have started moving across the north Georgia mountains and develop across the eastern part of the metro.

“We might have enough atmospheric energy to generate a few isolated storms,” Burns said.

The area that will see the strongest risk of storms will be the area from Eatonton to Athens throughout the late afternoon Wednesday and into the evening.

The front will push through by late Wednesday, with clearing skies behind it.

Burns said we could see a lingering shower on Thursday, putting the chance for rain at about 20 percent for the day.

Friday will heat up a bit with lots of sun, with a high around 84. Our next chance for rain will come over the weekend.

WHAT CAN VIEWERS ONLY GET ON TV?

1. Updated hour-by-hour cloud & rain forecast showing the timeline of rain and storms through Wednesday and when it will clear

2. Updated hour-by-hour humidity forecast showing the deep tropical moisture moving out and drier air moving in

3. Updated potential rainfall forecast

4. Updated severe weather outlook

HEAVY RAIN DOWNS TREES

The heavy rain brought down trees in southwest Atlanta and Buckhead overnight. Tuesday morning about 6 a.m., a large tree fell onto Interstate 285 southbound in south Fulton County.

We first alerted you to the traffic impact as all lanes were blocked with a push notification to commuters in south Fulton, Cobb and Clayton counties.

Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach was at the scene as HERO units worked to shovel pieces of the tree away from the road.

Cleanup still underway on outer loop 285 before 85 in S Ful Co. 3 rt. lanes blocked #ATLtraffic @MarkArum @WSBTraffic pic.twitter.com/teixJaDBqd

Huge trees came down in DeKalb County on Tuesday, blocking a major thoroughfare.

Memorial Drive at Delano Drive was cut off to traffic for a couple of hours as crews cut up the tree, while slow-moving vehicles detoured around the damaged area.

About six blocks away in the Kirkwood neighborhood, a downed tree blocked the intersection at Hillcrest Avenue and Delano Drive.

Neighbor Rita Awan told Channel 2’s Dave Huddleston that the homeowners were out of town, but said the trees have been leaning for years.

"I very seldom come down this street because I’ve had a fear that those trees would just fall," Awan said.

In southwest Atlanta at Valeland Avenue and Barge Road, a tree crashed down on a car, burying it in leaves and branches. It also brought down power lines.

Power crews worked throughout the day repairing those lines to get service back for people in the neighborhood.

RAINFALL TOTALS

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is one of the low spots for rainfall totals in the area since Saturday at about 1.8 inches, Severe Weather Team 2's  Brian Monahan said.

Some metro Atlanta areas received more than 4 inches of rain.

The airport so far one of the low spots for rainfall totals since Saturday in the area... at about 1.8"... some areas are well over 4"!

There is a risk for a few strong storms Wednesday, mainly across the eastern counties, including from Athens to Eatonton.

“This weekend, things will be improving across north Georgia," Monahan said.

Temperatures could start to reach the 80s into next week.

Stay with WSBTV.com and watch Channel 2 Action News throughout the day for the latest forecast updates.

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