Metro Atlanta to feel little impact from Hurricane Florence

ATLANTA — What’s left of Hurricane Florence should begin to send rain into metro Atlanta on Sunday night.

There's a 60 percent chance of rain developing late in the day Sunday, and storms should continue into Monday, Severe Weather Team 2 meteorologist Brad Nitz said. Most of metro Atlanta should only see about one-half inch of rain.

Those planning to attend Music Midtown this weekend can breathe a sigh of relief. Most of the festival should be hot and dry, Nitz said, but rain clouds could loom when Imagine Dragons and Kendrick Lamar take the stage in the 8 p.m. hour Sunday.

The latest models have Florence, now a Category 2 storm, stalling at the North Carolina-South Carolina coast early Thursday before making landfall Saturday morning and slowly turning to the west.

By the time it reaches Georgia, it will likely be a tropical depression. Winds will be lighter but rain chances are expected to increase. Gov. Nathan Deal has issued a state of emergency for all 159 Georgia counties ahead of the storm.

The brunt of Florence’s impact should be felt in the northeast corner of the state, and it won’t be much. Two to four inches of rain and wind gusts are possible, Nitz said Wednesday. The mountains could see six inches of rain and minor flooding.

“With the track that’s projected here, we’ve got 30-mph winds in northeast Georgia,” Nitz said. “Even that won’t cause any problems, and it would be just a light breeze locally in the metro area.”

Nitz said he doesn’t anticipate power outages will be a problem.

“If it takes this track, our local impacts will be significantly less than what we felt a year ago when Irma, as a tropical storm, came through,” he said.

Nitz said it is still too early to say with any certainty what path Florence will take. Five days out, the margin of error is about 200 miles.

Cox Media Group