Athens, GA Weather for Monday, May 20, 2013

40% chance of showers and thunderstorms

High: 85°F

Low: 64°F

Wow. What a crazy weather day! I apologize for the late post. A massive tornado outbreak is currently occurring across the Central Plains with numerous, large tornadoes being reported in Oklahoma and even into Iowa. No doubt this tornado outbreak will make the headline news tomorrow morning as I am seeing plenty of damage photos typical of EF-4 or possibly EF-5 damage. Across Georgia, we had our own surprise weather earlier this morning. Many people woke up to crashing thunder and plenty of lightning in Gwinnett and Walton counties as a severe thunderstorm pushed to the southeast. The storms moved rather slowly and produced extremely heavy rain across North Georgia. Flash Flood warnings were issued for a large area near Fulton, Dekalb, and Gwinnett Counties. Also, northwest Georgia experienced heavy rain and flooding conditions too. The rain should taper off tonight, with the majority of the showers staying west of Atlanta.

Storms from this morning looked ominous in Walton County. Image Credit: Matt Daniel 

As you can see in the image above, some areas had rainfall totals over 5 inches! In the Athens area, we only received less than a quarter of an inch of rain. However, the further west you were from Athens, the heavier the rainfall totals become.

Tonight: mostly cloudy skies with a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some storms could produce locally heavy rain. Low near 64°F. 

Monday: partly cloudy skies with a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms. High near 85°F. 

Sneak peek of the week:

Tuesday: partly cloudy skies with a 30% chance of afternoon thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 80s. Wake up temperatures in the low to mid 60s.

Wednesday: partly sunny skies with a 50% chance of afternoon thunderstorms. Highs in the low to mid 80s. Wake up temperatures in the low to mid 60s.

Thursday: mostly cloudy skies with a 30% chance of  thunderstorms. Highs in the low to mid 80s. Wake up temperatures in the low to mid 60s.

Friday: partly cloudy skies with a 20% chance of afternoon thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 80s. Wake up temperatures in the low to mid 60s.

Saturday: partly cloudy skies with a 20% chance of afternoon thunderstorms. Highs in the low 80s. Wake up temperatures in the low to mid 60s.

Weather Video of the Day:

Here is some dramatic footage of the tornadoes that hit parts of the Central Plains today. This video shows a large wedge tornado near Carney, Oklahoma. Crazy stuff.

Athens, GA Weather for Sunday, May 19, 2013

60% chance of showers and thunderstorms 

High: 78°F

Low: 63°F

Radar loop at 7:20 p.m. EDT on May 18, 2013. Image Credit: NOAA

Today, we saw more clouds than sun which kept our high temperatures in the upper 70s instead of the low 80s. Most of North Georgia remains fairly dry, but we could see a round of storms develop later this evening and push into North Georgia Sunday morning. Once again, we could see a few strong storms, but I am thinking most of them will stay under the severe limit.

Tonight: 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Otherwise, mostly cloudy skies with a low near 63°F. 

Sunday: 60% chance of showers and thunderstorms with a high near 78°F. Best chance for showers and storms will be in the morning hours. Then, pop up storms are possible in the afternoon and evening. High near 78°F. 

Timing: 

I think the best time to see showers and thunderstorms Sunday will be around 5 a.m. through 2 p.m. EDT. There are at least two of our short-range models that indicate this idea.

First off, the HRRR model run shows showers and storms increasing across North Georgia Sunday morning:

Meanwhile, the NAM 4 KM model is indicating showers and storms increasing Sunday morning as well:

The NAM 4 KM model indicates scattered showers and storm Sunday morning too. Image Credit: Weatherbell

Once again, storms should remain below severe limits. Heavy rain and thunder is likely in the stronger storms. By Sunday afternoon, most of us will stay dry. However, a few storms could develop across the area later in the evening hours. If any advisories or warnings are issued, we'll let you know.

Weather Video of the Day:

There are plenty of storm chasers out across the Central Plains looking for one thing: tornadoes. Here is a group of storm chasers that found a tornado in Dumas, Texas on this day back in 2010.