9:15 A.M. SUNDAY UPDATE: Nearly 700 people in Gainesville and nearby areas were still without power as of 9:00 Suday morning following those overnight storms. Jackson EMC was reporting 193 outages, most of them, 184, in Hall County. Habersham EMC appears to have been the hardest hit power supplier in the area, with 443 outages, most of them, 338, in Hall County. Cumming-based Sawnee EMC had 12 outages and Georgia Power, 27. Dawsonville-based Amicalola EMC was reporting no outages.
7:00 A.M. SUNDAY UPDATE: As expected stormy weather moved into Georgia overnight and has prompted the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue a Tornado Watch for large portions of the state. The watch area does not include Gainesville and the rest of north Georgia but does include some places just to the south of us from Gwinnett and Atlanta south and west to include Milledgeville, LaGrange, Macon, Columbus, Albany, and Bainbridge. The watch also includes parts of the Florida Panhandle and southeast Alabama.
In Gainesville heavy rains and strong gusty winds began moving in about midnight, according to NWS data collected at the airport. In the six hours ending at 7:00 Sunday morning, rainfall totaled just under an inch (.86) and the top wind gust, recorded about 6:00, was 29 mph.
Radar showed showers extending back into middle Alabama, moving east-northeast.
The forecast for Gainesville and vicinity calls for showers and thunderstorms “mainly before” 10:00 a.m. with clearing skies the rest of the day and sunny and warm Monday.
8:21 P.M. SATURDAY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE (NWS) UPDATE – “We continue to monitor chances for severe weather across the area after midnight tonight. As of (7:00 P.M.), we’ve got sufficient wind shear to support rotating storms, but the wedge inversion would prevent storms from being surface based.
“Huge caveat: we are expecting the cool, stable wedge airmass to begin to erode as the storm system approaches from the west tonight, but questions remain regarding how far northward the warmer, more unstable airmass makes it. We need that warm, moist air to support strong to severe thunderstorms. We’ll keep you updated tonight as the forecast changes!”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Overnight updates can be found at (1) Facebook)
EARLIER STORY. POSTED 10:15 A.M. SATURDAY: The National Weather Service (NWS) said Saturday morning the threat of stormy weather across Georgia this weekend is increasing.
The agency posted this update at 9:00:
“The potential for strong to severe storms tonight into early tomorrow (Sunday) morning is increasing. What changed? The system driving the severe weather threat is very strong, and an influx of strong winds aloft and warm, moist air will somewhat erode the pesky wedge (whose southernmost border is outlined in blue on the accompanying graphic) of cold, stable air currently in place across north Georgia.
“Scattered thunderstorms will be possible across much of the area late this (Saturday) afternoon into the early morning hours (Sunday). A line of strong-to-severe thunderstorms is expected to move into northern and western Georgia early tomorrow (Sunday). Potential impacts: Damaging wind gusts and a few tornadoes.”