ATLANTA —
Quick Forecast:
Tonight: Cloudy skies with patchy fog and drizzle. Low: 60°.
Tuesday: AM Fog/clouds with patchy drizzle. Turning partly sunny by the afternoon. High: 76°.
Wednesday: Cloudy with rain showers increasing during the day. High: 74°.
Thursday: Areas of rain early. Drier late day. High: 73°.
Discussion:
The dreaded wedge has kept overcast skies and pesky light showers/drizzle over the area the last two days. We should start to see more sunshine Tuesday afternoon, along with a little milder temperatures.
That dry weather won't last long. Atlanta's wettest stretch in more than 5 weeks will be arriving Wednesday.
We've issued an 11 Alive Weather Impact Alert for Wednesday afternoon through Thursday morning for our first soaking rain in over a month.
In preparation for the rain, make sure it has somewhere to go! Clear downspouts and storm drains of fall leaves and debris. With a month-long spell of relatively dry weather, the roads may also have extra build-up of motor oil on them, leading to slicker commutes.
Cloud cover holds stubborn overnight. There could be a few isolated showers, or areas of drizzle as well as some areas of dense fog. We will give it a 20% chance for now.
Election day will be a little drier. We will have a few clouds around, but the rain chance will be lower. We should also have a few more breaks in the clouds Tuesday afternoon. The extra sun, will help to boost our high temperatures back to the 70s.
Rain chances will be going up by mid-week as tropical moisture works into north Georgia. This won't be directly from the center of Tropical Storm Rafael, but rather tropical moisture being funneled in advance of the storm up into the southeast.
Wednesday's rain coverage could be fairly spotty early for the morning commute.
Later in the day, a better axis of moisture looks to work into north Georgia. This will bring more widespread rain by the evening commute and beyond.
At times, the rain could stay widespread for the morning commute Thursday as well.
The rain should taper off later Thursday. We'll keep isolated showers in the forecast at the end of the week, but nothing looks widespread.
Rain totals could widely vary and models still disagree with how much rain we'll see in the metro. Anywhere from 1/2" to 2" seems reasonable, with higher amounts southeast of the city.
Rafael is expected to become a hurricane as it enters the Gulf of Mexico by Thursday. Tropical moisture from the system will get pushed into Georgia, increasing our rain chances here. There are still some uncertainties with where the storm will go in the Gulf of Mexico.
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