Warning: Wind gusts could cause trees weakened by snow to fall

ATLANTA — As most of the snow and ice melts days after a storm dumped inches of snow in Georgia, the new concerns this week are strong wind and weak trees.

Wind gusts could reach up to 30 mph beginning on Tuesday when a cold front arrives, according to Severe Weather Team 2 Meteorologist Brad Nitz.

“These gusts will likely bring down trees that are cracked/damaged form the snow storm, or possibly trees that are still weighted with heavy snow,” Nitz said.

Crews have been busy Monday cleaning up downed trees from the weekend.

David Mattos lives in a heavily wooded Roswell subdivision where more than six inches of snow fell between Friday and Saturday morning.

As it accumulated, the snow caused limbs to sag and break throughout his neighborhood.

“The real heavy snow that we had, the weight of the snow, was just bringing down trees,” Mattos said. “We were walking around here Friday evening, and you could hear the cracking of limbs all over the place."

Saturated snow weighs around 20 pounds per cubic foot. A large tree could be covered with thousands of pounds of snow depending on the number of branches and leaves.

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“What we found in particular is the Water Oaks had not dropped their leaves yet, and that created a lot of surface area for the snow and ice to accumulate and that brought down some gigantic limbs and trees,” said Ben Coombs from Tomahawk Tree Service.

Coombs said he answered calls for around down trees and limbs Saturday, some on roofs, others on driveways.

With strong wind gust in the forecast Tuesday, it worth taking a look to see if there's any trees on your property that may be at risk, especially dead or dying trees.

Cox Media Group